


Flying in the Face of Fate

by muddyevil



Series: Flying in the Face of Fate [1]
Category: Flying in the Face of Fate
Genre: M/M, Original Character(s), Original Fiction, Original Universe
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-17
Updated: 2019-12-17
Packaged: 2021-02-25 21:20:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 12
Words: 32,818
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21832105
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/muddyevil/pseuds/muddyevil
Summary: Lin Chasso is the non-magical heir to a magical university, stuck at the other side of the country with a multitude of bounties between him and home.Caelan Harlaw is a travelling mercenary looking to pick up a couple of jobs. He was planning on heading north anyway, and it would be stupid not to take advantage of a job asking him to just that, right?Flying in the Face of Fate is an LGBT+ work that was originally released as a podcast. The audio version of this work can be found at https://linktr.ee/flying_fate
Series: Flying in the Face of Fate [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1573132
Kudos: 1





	1. A meeting in a tavern

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Flying in the Face of Fate](https://archiveofourown.org/external_works/542944) by Nathaniel Barry. 



This would be an easy job. Caelan had decided that as soon as he read the poster in what constituted the town square in this little village. 

Escort someone on the route back to Hyrandell. It was a few days journey, maybe, and they’d have to cross the Hartiz Ridge, but it wasn’t like he hadn’t done that before. They could even take the train under the mountains, if they needed to. It was only going to take him a day out of his way, anyway. It looked like the job had been there a while, which was understandable. Peatsland wasn’t the type of town you stayed in for long, just made a stop on the way through. The curious side of him made him wonder just what anyone was doing here in the first place. At least it meant he wasn’t going to have much competition for the job.

He threw his jacket over his shoulder, wiping a little sweat off his forehead as he made his way to the inn mentioned on the poster. Spring was really starting to bleed into summer, and whereas Peatsland was still relatively far south it was really heating up. All he wanted to do was find some shade to sit in, but this opportunity was far too good to pass up. Being paid for making the journey he would need to make anyway? He would need to be an idiot not to.

The inn was a small place, somewhere that was obviously only frequented by locals and travellers. The thatched roof hung low in front of the building, desperately in need of a refresh or at least some maintenance, but he had drank in worse establishments. It looked more like a house than an actual pub, blending in with the buildings either side of it and the only differentiation the large sign which hung outside. “The Nifty Fire Inn.” There must have been a story behind it. It really didn’t look like the kind of place that should have that name.

Inside was just as warm and cozy as he had expected it to be. An actual non-magical fire burned in the fireplace, and none of the furniture looked like it had been made or bought with a specific style in mind. What looked like locals crowded around a couple of the tables, occasionally turning around to joke between the tables as if there weren’t separate groups at all. There was even what appeared to be a pub cat, a small calico curled up in a bed on the bar top and bearing no mind to anyone coming in and out around them.

The bartender was nice enough, at least, and Caelan chatted to him for a moment after informing him he was here about the job. The menu didn’t have much to offer either, and it took a moment for him to decide on a simple bowl of soup and a glass of water. He tried not to be too disappointed when he was informed that there weren’t any rooms left in the inn for the night. It meant he’d be stuck sleeping outside for another evening. Not that he didn’t have the camping equipment, but it would have been nice to have a warm bed for one more night before he was forced to use it. Unless… unless he could convince whoever was hiring him to let him stay the night. After all, they’d have to get to know each other fairly well.

He took his glass of water to an empty table, watching as the bartender disappeared back into a kitchen. He wondered whether it was just him working there, without any assistance. In all honestly, it didn’t look like this place did enough business to warrant hiring another member of staff. Most of the inns like this he had been in were operated by families, anyway. Maybe his spouse was in the back, doing some cooking. Or maybe he did it all himself.

In the end, he was left with his own thoughts for too long. This would be some quick cash, sure, but it didn’t mean the wait to meet his new employer was any less soul destroyingly dull. He plucked at his dulcimer a little, more practising than actually performing, but he still got a smile from a half orc woman and even a few copper pieces. A small tip, sure, but more than he was expecting from an inn like this. Usually he’d be asked to stop, or worse, kicked out entirely. That really wouldn’t be a good start to the job. But even if he wasn’t tipped by everyone here, he still saw a few of them tapping their feet along to the rhythm he was playing, and he would be lying if he said it didn’t stroke some part of his ego.

The soup came before the client did, and Caelan was left wondering if he was ever actually going to show. He carefully rested his dulcimer on a a nearby table, before tucking into his meal. The soup was thick, almost homely if it had been seasoned properly. It wasn’t the best he’d ever eaten, but it wasn’t the worst either. It was soups like this which made him miss home, and his father’s cooking.

It was obvious who the man asking for the bodyguard was, even before he approached him at the specified table. Caelan couldn’t help but look up from his soup as everyone’s heads turned, looking towards the stairs when the doors opened. Whispers abounded through the occupants of the inn, not that the subject of them seemed to notice. Or maybe he didn’t care, either option was perfectly plausible.

He was, quite possibly, the tallest elf that Caelan had ever seen before. Add that to the carefully tailored business suit he was wearing and he most definitely looked out of place in this tiny mining town. After making his way down the stairs he locked eyes with Caelan, a small nod before he walked over to the bar and ordered a drink in some language he didn’t understand. After he retrieved a jug of water he headed towards the table, and Caelan’s mind whirred as he tried to figure out just what was out of place about him. His height was something, sure, but it wasn’t that. His hair was traditionally Elvish, too, a simple braid that fell to his lower back. 

Caelan tried not to stare too much, but he was oddly fascinated with trying to figure out what type of elf he even was. Sure, the red hair and eyes pointed towards a Sun Elf, but he was too tall, and far too pale, an almost bluish hint to his skin it was so white. His freckles were paler than a Sun Elf’s, too, almost invisible against his skin. A moon elf would be plausible, but he had never seen a moon elf with red eyes or hair quite that light. He could be a mixture of the two, but surely that would have blended the colourations of each species rather than mixing and matching them?

“What exactly about me is captivating you?” The other man’s voice was deep, the musical words of Elvish rolling off his tongue like it belonged. Common Elvish, unfortunately, so no hints there. At least he was smirking, apparently either used to being stared at or plain enjoying it.

“You’re very pretty.” Caelan replied, smirking right back as he tried to hide his true intentions. It wasn’t always the best practice to tell your potential employer you were wondering what the hell they were. Of course, it was usually a risky bet to immediately flirt with them as well, but if this fell through it didn’t really matter. And if he did succeed in this then he might be able to actually get a good night’s sleep in a comfy bed tonight. 

The blush that rose across the man’s cheeks was definitely not expected. He hadn’t lied at all, the man was pretty, but obviously he wasn’t used to hearing it. He even saw the small twitch of his ears that he had learnt in his travels indicated embarrassment before they almost instantly returned to the neutral pattern that they had been in before. 

Caelan couldn’t help but smirk a little more. This looked like it could be fun.

“My apologies. Caelan Harlaw.” He stood to shake the other man’s hand, hoping that it would at least lessen his awkwardness for a moment and they could move on.

Instead the elf paused a moment, looking between Caelan’s hand and the jug of water and glass he was holding, before quickly taking his hand to shake. It finally dawned on Caelan just what was odd about him. He didn’t move with the usual grace elves did.

“Lin Chasso. It’s a pleasure to meet you.” He responded, and at least his voice seemed to be smooth and put together even as his movements didn’t. He had a firm handshake, too, and Caelan’s father always told him that was an indication of a good man. “Please, sit. I believe there’s a job we need to discuss.”

Caelan took the invitation to sit, moving his empty bowl to an unoccupied table before turning back around. Lin had lost no time in topping up his glass with what looked like water, but Caelan knew better than to trust his eyes and silently decided not to drink anymore. Sure, Lin took a drink from his own glass easily, but that didn’t necessarily mean anything.

“You need an escort back to Hyrandell. Should be easy.” Caelan smiled, stretching over to place his dulcimer back on his lap and starting to pluck strings in a lazy rhythm. For his credit, Lin didn’t seem to mind, eyes simply taking in the instrument for a moment before moving on to inspect the rest of him.

“Easy money, right?” Lin hummed, finally sitting back and taking another sip from his glass. “Fifty gold now. Fifty when we arrive back in Hyrandell. I’ll provide you with food and drink on the way there, too. And accommodation, when we can find it.” 

Caelan struggled to maintain a straight face. One hundred gold for just a few days work was… a lot. Not to mention all of his expenses paid for him? He could kind of see why the payment wasn’t on the flyer. You would attract all kinds of attention offering money like that. There must be a catch.

“Alright.” Caelan held his hand out, asking for the money. He half expected a backtrack, a reason why he’d have to ‘Go here’ to get the payment, or some other excuse to catch him off guard and rob him blind. “Fifty now, fifty then seems plenty enough for me.”

If he found it difficult not to look surprised before, it was even harder now. The elf simply reached into an inside pocket in his jacket and pulled out a small velvet coin purse. He opened it up easily, reaching in to pull out five platinum coins, one by one, and pass them over to Caelan without a care in the world.

Caelan couldn’t help but cast a glance around the inn. No one new had entered, and everyone looked like they should be here, but that amount of money being so casually passed over the table should have attracted some attention. He could definitely see why everyone was so intrigued when Lin walked in, if he had been pulling stunts like this off for a while it was sure to get the word around, for better or for worse.

“I know platinum isn’t really practical for everyone, but they’re easier to carry around, I’m sure you understand.” Lin continued, putting his purse away like it was nothing and seeming not to be bothered by the flagrant show of wealth he’d just shown. “If you prefer gold I can easily swap it as soon as I get home.”

Caelan took the coins off the table quickly, more to hopefully avoid any watching eyes than out of greed, and emptied them into his own coin purse. Maybe there was much more to this elf than he’d originally expected. He didn’t seem dangerous, at least, just… naive. As if he’d never really spent time out in the real world before. To be honest, Caelan wasn’t that surprised. Rich kids like this rarely seemed to actually connect with the real world, no matter how hard they tried.

“This will be fine” he replied quickly, putting his purse back into his bag quickly before returning to plucking nervously at the strings of his dulcimer. They would be difficult to spend, sure, but not impossible and it was a better payment than nothing. Maybe he’d be able to put a deposit down on a nice house. The idea almost made him laugh nervously. He wasn’t exactly the type to want to settle down.

“Have you eaten? Is there anything I can get you?” Lin asked, sitting back in his chair and folding his hands in his lap like he didn’t just pass over more money than this inn probably made in a year. At least he didn’t seem to be lording the money over Caelan, that was always the worst to deal with. He just seemed genuinely unaware as to what he had just done.

Caelan shook his head quickly, trying to copy his relaxed pose as much as he could. This was definitely more than he’d expected it to be but, well. He had done far more dangerous jobs in the past, and half of them didn’t pay nearly this much.

“So, do you have a time frame on getting home?” he asked casually, watching Lin for any sign of emotion. He had to admit the elf seemed good at keeping a poker face. Even his ears, usually twitching and swivelling about, were surprisingly still for an elf.

“Not really.” Lin replied, taking sips from his drink slowly. “I want to set off as soon as possible, though. This town is nice and all, but the scenery is starting to bore me a little. Plus, I have work to get back to as soon as I am back in the city.”

A part of Caelan wanted to ask what type of work, exactly, but they had plenty of time over the next couple of days for him to ask as much as he wanted from the man in front of him. Maybe build up a little trust first, make him less likely to lie through his teeth. After all, Caelan usually spouted lies whenever he was asked the same question. He looked out of the window across the inn, taking note of the time and humming a little.

“Well, I suggest we set off tomorrow. I can see in the dark but, well, I would rather make moves during the day.” He wondered aloud more to himself than to Lin. “More bandits tend to attack during the night, waiting for races who can’t see as well. Maybe we get lucky and they don’t attack us but, well. I’d rather play it safe than sorry.

“You can always stay with me.” Lin blurted out, and as soon as Caelan looked up at him he could see that blush returning as if he hadn’t meant to say it out loud. It was a strange contrast to how he seemed so put together the rest of the time.

“I mean we’re going to be staying together for the next week or so, and there aren’t any more rooms left and I wouldn’t want you to sleep outside on the last night you’d get to use a bed and…” Caelan could see him start to babble, getting more and more flustered and he couldn’t help but smirk a little sadistically.

The elf’s words were cut off abruptly when Caelan stretched his leg out and ran his foot up the inside of the other man’s leg. It was a gamble, sure, but a calculated one. There was no way he’d get this muddled if there wasn’t even a tiny bit of attraction there. Lin’s ears shot back in surprise for a second, before they twitched in what Caelan took to be curiosity.

“Do you usually ask your employees up to your room when you first hire them?” Caelan added with a smirk, enjoying the way Lin’s blush spread further across his cheeks and threatened to make its way up his ears.

“I, uh… No, I…” Lin stuttered a few times, making Caelan doubt what he was doing for just a second before the elf stood, finished his glass and throwing a key across the table.

“Room four, whenever you’re ready.” He didn’t even look him in the eyes before turning around and almost stumbling away.

Caelan was right. This was going to be interesting.


	2. A Misunderstanding

Lin never slept. It wasn’t a sometimes slept, or rarely slept, like some people he knew. He never slept. It was probably the only reason he praised his genetics at all. He didn’t need to sleep, simply meditate for about four hours a night, or spread across the course of the day, and he was fine. He couldn’t even remember the last time he actually slept. It was definitely when he was a child, and probably much before it was strictly healthy to stop sleeping. But it hadn’t seemed to have any long term effects, so he couldn’t complain too much.

Of course, that meant that he was up far earlier than Caelan was, the half-elf fast asleep next to him, and probably would be for a while at least. His dirty blonde hair was covering his face, and Lin had to fight against himself not to lean over and brush it away. That was sure to wake him up. Their legs were still tangled together underneath the covers, and for a moment he couldn’t bring himself to move at all. Maybe he should just lie down and keep himself busy for a while until he woke up…

He lasted maybe an hour before boredom overtook him. If he could just grab his bag then he could get a book to read, but that was across the other side of the room. It wasn’t large, by any means, a small little inn room that he’d booked out long term, mostly light wood panelling and a few old soft furnishings. But it was still much further than he could reach without moving. He even tried a couple of times, turning the top of his body and trying to will himself to reach further towards his bag without success.

In the end he had to inch his legs out from between Caelan’s, watching the half-elf’s face carefully as he pulled away. Thankfully he didn’t stir even a little, and Lin let out a shaky breath in celebration. He was sore, as he stood up. The events of the night before had caught up with him more than he cared to ever admit. He made his way over to the other side of the room, avoiding the windows and their subpar curtains, grabbing his bag before heading back to bed.

Getting back into bed was just as precarious as getting out of it, slowly propping himself up against the wall without waking the man bedside him. He carefully placed his pillows behind his back, settling himself in for what he was sure for a long night of reading.

He didn't get far before his mind started wandering. It’s not that the book was boring, it was anything but, it was just that there were more pressing matters at the forefront of his mind right now.

Like just how he had got here, reading naked in bed with a man he had only just met. It wasn’t like it was an odd occasion, him getting into bed with men he really shouldn’t after too short of a time knowing them, but he really wasn’t expecting it to happen today, or to someone who was supposed to be protecting for a few days. In fact, when he had posted up the advert for a bodyguard he had assumed there would be a big burly man who would have zero interest in him. Definitely not this little half-elf who was barely much stronger than he was. Not that he’d complain, of course, he was obviously very talented at what he did otherwise he wouldn’t have applied. Well, Lin hoped that was the case, anyway.

Maybe the journey back home would be a lot more interesting than he originally thought then, too. From what little they had spoken, Lin found Caelan genuinely great to get along with, with more similarities than he ever would have thought possible. He’d had his own book in his bag, and they’d discussed a little about things that they had read before they fell asleep. All very easy topics, for sure, but he found friendships worked better if you started off with the easy things. He was glad, honestly. It would be a good few days journey home, and that was with taking a train through the mountains. Maybe he could buy them seperate rooms on the three day ride, but they’d still be spending most of their time together and it would be nice to save the money.

… Who was he kidding? It would be nice to spend the most time with Caelan as he could. It wasn’t like he would stay much longer than the journey, anyway, why would he? And maybe Lin could allow himself this little luxury, just this once. He surely deserved it after all, and he wasn’t hurting anyone by pretending that this relationship was something more than it really was. Caelan could go along thinking he was just a normal bodyguard, and Lin could pretend…

He had to shake his head to stop his mind from running away from him. He must have been more lonely than he thought, if this is where it was taking him. A relationship like that wasn’t needed, and it detracted away from the more important things in life, like work and his research. Sure, it might be nice one day when his work was all finished, but he didn’t need to get swept up in it now.

Turning his eyes back to his book, it was easy to slip back into the theories and methods that lay within. Maybe it would have been better to bring a fictional book, but that would just be a waste of time that he was fast running out of.

The sound of a door out in the hallway slamming was enough to pull him from his research, ears pinning back in shock as adrenaline flooded his veins instantly. It took a few seconds for him to start breathing more evenly, rationalising with himself that there was nothing coming after him. He looked out of the window, suddenly noticing the sunlight streaming in and after a few seconds he figured out that it was easily approaching lunchtime. Shit. He had meant to head off before now.

He was just as careful getting out of bed this time, carefully slipping his book back into his bag before folding the clothes from the night before. Caelan looked fast asleep still, not even bothered by Lin moving and the elf wondered just how you could be an effective bodyguard if you were that deep a sleeper. Maybe he hadn’t actually been in a real life or death situation which forced you into being aware of your surroundings at all times. He found people rarely had.

It was a question he pondered as he got dressed, pulling the braid out of his hair to brush through it carefully. It was more of a chore than he really cared for, having to work through it all section by section to avoid it pulling. It was straight enough, sure, but he’d inherited just enough of his mother’s frizz to cause it to tangle easily if he didn’t take care of it perfectly every single day.

Lin had assumed that Caelan would wake up at some point when he was getting ready, now that it was most definitely past noon, but the man was still fast asleep on the bed. He sighed, torn between just leaving him there and getting him up to get ready to head back downstairs.He supposed if he left it too much longer, then they’d have to stay here another night and whereas it was definitely tempting, it would also waste a lot of both of their time.

The bed creaked a little as he knelt on it, crawling across to lean down and press a quick kiss to Caelan’s lips. He’d have definitely enjoyed being woken up like that, anyway, and he hoped that the same thing extended to the half-elf still curled up in the blankets.

“Hey” he whispered, trying to be as gentle as he could. “It’s time to get up.” 

He allowed himself to flop back down on the bed, ignoring how it would start to wrinkle his suit, and snaked a hand around Caelan’s waist before moving over to kiss him again.

His reaction was… unexpected. Caelan batted at his face, not enough to hurt but definitely enough to push him away. Lin shot back in shock, sitting up in the bed as Caelan turned away from him and groaned loudly.

“Go away. Gimme ten more minutes.” he mumbled, before his breathing appeared to even out again almost immediately.

Lin could do nothing but stare at him, a strange mix of anger and sadness rising up in his chest. Sure, he was more than used to being used by men to get their kicks before leaving in the morning but… he didn’t know. He thought Caelan was different. He’d stayed overnight. He’d pulled him into an embrace before they slept. He actually seemed like he cared.

Showed him for being naive.

He took a deep breath, standing up to go and collect his bag as he kept to shove his emotions in check. This was unreasonable. He shouldn’t react like this.

That didn’t stop the door from slamming slightly louder than necessary on his way out of the room, though.

The slamming of the door brought Caelan fully to consciousness rudely. He shot up in bed, brain running at a hundred miles an hour as he tried to figure out what it was, glancing about the room to see if he was in danger. Even a cursory glance told him everything was fine, though, and the fact Lin had left with his bag and all of his clothes was a good sign. Not to mention the vague half-asleep memory that he had of the man trying to wake him up. He wasn’t in danger, and his charged hadn’t got kidnapped. Apparently he just had a bit of a temper on him.

He groaned, rolling about on the bed for a moment as he tried to debate whether or not he could justify just… not getting out of bed yet. If it hadn’t been a paying job it would have been much easier to convince himself, but in the end he realised he probably should get up. No matter how warm the blankets were, the promise of another fifty gold at the other end of this journey was better. He could always rest up after he got to Hyrendell. Fifty gold would be more than enough to cover the best hotel room in the city.

The amount of sunlight streaming through the window told him it was more likely than not past noon and, yeah, maybe that was why Lin was mad he wasn’t getting up quick enough. In his defence, he had asked him yesterday to get him up when they needed to leave. Although perhaps he should have warned him that he was more often than not incredibly grumpy in the morning. Still, he sat up, throwing his legs off the side of the bed to start doing his morning stretches.

They weren’t much, nowhere near the intensity his father did morning exercise, but they were enough to get the blood pumping and leave his muscles supple. He got enough practise out and about in day to day life to leave his body muscled without being too over the top. He’d always been told he had a swimmers body, which was ironic as he’d never actually learnt to swim. Instead he used it for some of the more… nefarious aspects of his job. Hand to hand fights, getting out of the way when he needed to. And most importantly, getting into places that he shouldn’t be.

The small adjoining bathroom in the room was nice, too. It looked relatively new, as if someone had added it on in the last couple of months. It was fairly well stocked, as well, with soaps and hair products he knew were Lin’s as soon as he used them. The bottle’s weren’t full, sure, but they were far from empty. Did he usually just leave his toiletries whenever he left somewhere? Was he planning on coming back? Just how long had he been here, anyway? A part of him wished that he had actually asked around the occupants of the inn downstairs for more information. Oh well. It was too late to ask now.

He sped through getting dressed and packing up his things, not that he had much to pack up. A few minutes and he was heading down the stairs to the main portion of the inn.  
There were much less people in there today, being in the middle of the day. It was too late for the breakfast crowd, and slightly too early for lunch, so the only people in there were those retired old men who were borderline alcoholics. They didn’t pay him any mind, simply nursing their drinks and reminiscing about the old days.

Lin was sat at one of the tables next to the window, hair tied back into another loose braid like the night before. His suit was obviously different from the one he had worn yesterday, a slightly different cut, but it was still the same dull black. He looked up when Caelan walked in, ears ticking back in what he knew was annoyance, but he still stood up and pulled a chair out for him. Caelan nodded in appreciation, taking the seat and the menu when it was offered to him.

“Get whatever you want. I didn’t know what you’d like.” Lin offered, taking a sip out of what looked like some juice. His voice didn’t sound like he was pissed off, but Elven ears rarely lied.

He took a moment to glance over the menu, ended up settling on a sandwich and a smoothie, and gave Lin his order before sitting back. The elf stood up, walked over to the bar and ordered in that same unknown language from the night before. Caelan simply watched, taking in his surroundings before looking down at Lin’s bag. It looked like a simple messenger bag, an over-the-shoulder affair that didn’t look like it had a chance of carrying everything he had seen in the room last night. He shook his head quickly. The guy was rich enough, even though a magical bag was something far too luxurious for Caelan, Lin must not have batted an eyelid at carrying one around for day to day business.

Lin finally came back over, passing him his smoothie with a nod. He went to open his mouth, but before he could talk Caelan leant forward and rested his elbows on the table.

“So. What did I do to piss you off?”

He didn’t expect the reaction that came from that. Lin’s ears ticked back for a second as his eyes widened in utter fear. He stuttered a few times, ears twitching before he coughed and finally regained some sort of composure.

“I… what? Um. I didn’t think you had noticed.” came the response, and Caelan really did believe him. He seemed to be incredibly put out by being called out like this.

“You slammed the door, and I saw that little pissed off wiggle your ears did. We’re going to be together for the next week or so, I need to know if I did something wrong.” Caelan responded, and just got the same almost terrified stare back. He felt a little bad, just a little, but he didn’t want this hanging over them the whole time.

“I…” Lin stammered again, before taking a sip from his juice and tapping his hands nervously on the table. “I’m sorry. That one was on me. I was doing some work in the night while you slept and it got me all worked up. It wasn’t fair I took it out on you. I apologise. It won’t happen again.”

Caelan stared at him a little longer, but he seemed to be telling the truth. His ears had ticked down ever so slightly in what he took to be an apologetic fashion and he really seemed to be sorry.

“Well then. All water under the bridge.” Caelan responded, happy to let it lie, even if he would make sure to remember what he’d done. After a few sips of his drink he leant down to grab his bag, rummaging through it before pulling out his map and laying it flat on the table, using some glasses to weigh the corners down.

“Okay, Hyrendell. It’ll be a week, maybe two. How did you feel about cutting through the Hartiz Ridge?” he pointed to Eastborne on the map, the small industrial city where the Hartiz Underpass started.

Lin nodded, leaning forward to look at the map. “I don’t mind taking the underpass. I’ll get us a nice cabin or two in first class. I would… I would prefer taking some of the back roads though. The open roads can be a bit… dangerous.”

Caelan stopped himself from raising an eyebrow, but only just. Travelling in first class on a train was definitely high-key, but he wanted to stick to the back roads? He supposed, in a way, it made sense. There must have been a much increased security force in first class. Lin hadn’t finished talking, though.

“I was thinking we take the back road towards Winterdrift.” He traced the road, a smaller dirt road, if Caelan remembered correctly. “I have access to a place there we can stay for the night, stock up on supplies and spend the night in a decent bed.”

Caelan nodded, thinking to himself and trying to remember any problems taking the back roads may cause.

“It may take slightly longer. More chance of bandits, too. But if you want to take the back roads, I can most probably take them.” he mused, reaching up to get his sandwich when it arrived and placing it on the map where he wouldn’t need to read it. Lin did the same, taking a bite and chewing on it as he thought.

“Back roads would be better. I have… a bounty on my head. People would assume I was taking the main road here and try and intercept me.” 

Caelan looked up quizzically, finishing his mouthful and taking a quick drink before speaking up. “Oh? What did you do? Anything I should know about?”

Lin shook his head, seeming somewhat non-plussed despite the revelation he had just made.

“I’m not talking about reputable bounties. I don’t have any law enforcement after me, if that’s what you’re asking. All the bounties on me are from criminals. Mostly want to ransom me back to anyone who cares about me.” He spoke casually, which seemed strange for what he was saying, but thinking it through Caelan kind of understood. There was obviously something about being rich that made you a target for the less respected members of society.

“Alright.” Caelan spoke, sitting back and eating his sandwich slowly. “We’ll take the scenic route. Finish up, and we’ll head out.”


	3. Thirty Second Histories

Lin straightened his jacket as he stood, leaving money for the food and the drink on the table before following Caelan out of the front of the door. Spring was in full force, and he had to blink a few times to adjust to the light as they left the inn. He looked around the streets, more habit than anything, checking that there was no one out of place and no one obviously looking at him. Nothing was immediately apparent, and he let out a quiet breath of relief.

“So, horses or walking?” Caelan asked, and Lin looked over to see him adjusting his dulcimer on his back. It looked… awkward to carry around everywhere but he didn’t seem to mind it.

Lin hadn’t actually thought too much about just how they were going to proceed forward. He had just assumed they would be taking horses, but now he wondered whether that was the right way to go. He stopped for a moment, before turning around to head towards the stables. He heard Caelan follow behind him, jogging a little to catch up and stand next to him.

“Where are you going?” he asked, and Lin looked down at him to see a face of genuine confusion looking back. Lin couldn’t help but copy him, the same confused face as he kept his pace.

“To the stables?” he replied, pointing towards the stables at the end of the street. Caelan hummed, appearing to accept the explanation as they walked along. “Where were you thinking of getting horses?” he asked, amused at his apparent confusion.

“Well… we don’t need to go into that, do we? The stables is a better idea.” he responded, and Lin couldn’t help but notice him refusing to make eye contact.

“Were you going to steal a horse?” Lin chuckled, adjusting his bag on his shoulder as they got to the stables and he nodded to the guard, opening up the door in front of him and letting Caelan into the stables.

“Well, no.” Caelan chuckled in response as Lin closed the door behind them. “I was going to steal two horses.”

The stables were small, but still nice. Lin would have described it as “cozy”, had anyone asked. All wood and thatch, it was kept warm through old fashioned engineering rather than any magical means. It was fairly empty, too, just four horses stood in the stables. Lin nodded to the stable boy, a young human who grinned back and obviously didn’t know who he was.

“I’m taking these two off your hands.” He kept his voice friendly, walking over to the boy and pulling his purse out of his pocket to pay for the stable fee, along with a small tip for him looking after the horses so well.

He walked over to the two horses, a small black stallion and a slightly larger chestnut mare. Gesturing for Caelan to go over to the mare, he walked over to his stallion, running a hand across the top of his head before kissing his nose.

“Hey, Kevah” he whispered in Elvish, rubbing at his neck as he got reacquainted with him. “I’ve missed you.”

“Are these your horses?” he heard Caelan ask in Common, watching the chestnut horse start to stamp his feet and get restless.

“Ah, yeah.” he replied, keeping his words in Elvish. “That’s Shiloh. She’s my brother’s. Kevah is mine. Here, actually, take Kevah. Shiloh has only ever really liked elves.”

He gave Kevah one last fuss, before walking across to Shiloh. She seemed to calm as he got closer, and he whispered soothingly to her as Caelan walked away.

“So, why did your brother raise a racist horse?” Caelan chuckled in Elvish, and Lin looked over his shoulder to see him starting to pay attention to Kevah, who looked like he was loving it. Lin sighed, rolling his eyes before moving to grab everything they would need for the journey.

“I don’t think he intended to. It’s just that…” He was about to mention that his stable hand had been a half-elf woman where his brother’s had been a Sun Elf, but he suddenly realised that he probably didn’t want the other man knowing about the family having even one stable hand, let alone multiple. “... Kevah has been out and about a lot more than Shiloh has. My brother always was antisocial.”

Caelan nodded, seeming to believe the lie easily as he kept trying to bond with the horse he would be riding for the next few days. Lin struggled to pull the first saddle off the wall, carrying it over to Caelan and heaving it up onto the taller horse. “Do you know how to saddle him up?” he asked, leaving Caelan to it as he nodded.

He continued with his own saddle, trying to remember how he had to fix all of the straps and buckles in order to keep it tight enough to the horse for the entirety of the journey. He threw his bag up onto the horses back, making sure it was fixed solidly before going to help Caelan with his.

“So,” he asked as he used his extra height to make sure Caelan’s bag wouldn’t move in transit either. “You travel by horseback much?”

Caelan shook his head, before taking a step back and jumping up onto the horse. He smiled down at Lin leaning forward to stroke the horses mane before taking up the reins easily.

“I have done, in the past. I know how to ride, sure. But honestly not very often, and not for a year or two. How about you?”

Lin shrugged as he walked away, leading Shiloh closer to some steps at the side of the stable. He knew that if he attempted to jump up like Caelan did he would just make a fool of himself. Thankfully Shiloh stayed still as he made his way up the steps, allowing himself to swing his leg over the horse and settle himself in the saddle.

“A lot more when I was younger, but not as much anymore. Just enough to get these guys and the others at home some exercise. I had another bodyguard on the way here, that’s why I’ve got Shiloh as well.”

Leaning forward he stroked down Shiloh’s mane again, before grabbing his own reins and steering her out of the stables. He nodded to the guard as he left, settling in for a long ride as he did.

“Do we need to stop and get food?” Caelan asked, pulling Kevah up to his side easily and matching his pace. Lin didn’t want to push the horses too hard, they still had plenty of time.

“Ah, no, I sorted it” Lin responded, tapping the bag behind him gently. “I have enough food and water to last us at least until Winterdrift. After that we can stock up with enough to get to Eastborne, and then there’s food on the train.” he explained, watching Caelan nod thoughtfully and he wondered if it was weird that he had picked food out for him without even knowing him. “I mean, I got some fresh meats and vegetables for the first nights, they’re in cooling bags, and then some dried things that we can heat up for the last few nights. If you wanted us to stop and get something else, you’re more than welcome.”

Caelan shook his head, and Lin gave out a relieved sigh that he hoped the other man didn’t notice. As they headed out of the small village and onto the smaller roads, he relaxed back on the horse and let her slow down to a gentler pace. She’d need the energy if they did need to get away at some speed

Again Caelan matched the speed perfectly, pulling the horse close enough to talk without being too much in the way.

“So.” the other man asked, seeming to relax a little as well and just enjoy the day. “Tell me about yourself. We’re going to be together for a while, huh?”

Lin couldn’t help but smile. His last bodyguard hadn’t wanted to speak, at all, and whereas he didn’t mind complete silence, he much preferred at least a little friendly talking.  
“What do you want to know?” he responded, looking over at the man and trying not to be too obvious about scanning the horizon for any possible danger.

“Well, I’ve known you for a few days and I know barely anything about you. Come on. Quick run down, thirty second life story and we’ll go from there.” Caelan insisted, and Lin couldn’t help but stare back in shock for a moment. He’d never been asked anything like that before and he didn’t really know where to start.

“Okay. Thirty seconds. Fuck. Anything particular you want to know?” He was answered with a shrug and a shake of the head, and Lin sighed before thinking through what he was going to say.

“Okay. Thirty seconds talking about me. Whole life story up to now. You know I have a longer life story than you, right?” He looked over at Caelan, who just seemed to smirk back in response. “My name is Lin Chasso. I was born in Hyrendell, in the house I live in now, one-hundred and eight years ago. Middle of three children, one younger brother and an older sibling of… questionable gender. He changed it a lot. Lived with my Mum and Dad. Mum stayed at home with us, Dad was out most of the time. All wizards, various schools though. Oh, you were wondering what kind of elf I was, right? When I came down yesterday?” He looked over at Caelan, who had wide eyes at being caught and he couldn’t help but smirk a little. He knew the exact look people gave him when they were trying to figure that out. “Anyway, my father is ‘full blooded’ Sun Elf” he made air quotes at ‘full blooded’ to show that, yes, he hated that phrase as much as most people did “and my mother is half sun elf, half star elf. That’s what makes me look like this.” With a final gesture down at himself he finished his spiel, smiling to hide his anxiety that it either hadn’t been enough or it was far too boring for Caelan to want to speak to him again.

The pause before Caelan responded definitely didn’t help. It looked like he was thinking hard about what to say, and Lin hoped he couldn’t see just how anxious he was for something, anything in response.

“So are you a wizard, too?” Caelan asked finally, looking over with a genuine curiosity that nearly caught Lin off guard enough to reply honestly. “If all your family are?”

Lin coughed, rubbing his neck a little as he tried to think of an answer that didn’t spill his deepest fears at this man’s feet while also being somewhat truthful.

“Ah… no. Couldn’t quite grasp it.” he responded, trying to be somewhat diplomatic and hoping Caelan got the drift. He didn’t.

“You seem pretty smart, though. You speak a lot of languages and I saw your little diagrams in your books. How did you not figure out wizardry?”

Lin sighed, talking slowly as if he was trying to work out what to say as he was saying it.

“I… okay. I can give you a very complex, highly scientific answer, or an idiot proof one. Which would you prefer?”

“Idiot proof” Caelan responded instantly, and Lin wondered if he felt a little offended at the question.

“Okay, well… I just… can’t. There’s something in our blood that says at conception whether we can or can’t do magic. I can’t.” He blurted out, hoping beyond hope that somehow if he said it quickly it wouldn’t be as embarrassing. It turned out he was wrong.

Caelan was quiet for a moment, and Lin braced for the questions. ‘But you’re an elf, elves can always cast magic’ or ‘why don’t you just try harder?’

“I’m sorry to hear that. Must be hard.” Caelan finally said, and Lin almost froze. He… wasn’t expecting that. The shock must have shown on his face, because after a moment Caelan elaborated.

“You know, having all your family members be wizards and that. Unless you never wanted to be a wizard, which is absolutely fine too.” he continued, and Lin couldn’t help the way his heart lifted slightly. It had been a very, very long time since someone had been even a little kind about his curse, or tried to understand how it felt. He felt his ears twitching happily, and a blush across the upper part of his cheeks that he tried to hide by looking down and away.

“Do you want to hear mine?” Caelan asked, and Lin could do nothing but hum in response, brain too busy swimming between embarrassment and full excitement that someone had been nice about it. 

“My thirty second life story.” Caelan elaborated, and Lin at least had the mental capacity to look over so he wasn’t just being plain rude.

“Of course” Lin responded, putting on a smile and trying to quiet his brain down enough to actually listen.

“Born in Eastborne, thirty five years ago. Only child. My dad’s a human, used to be a soldier. Left the military when I was born and took on some mercenary work, but he’s retired now. My Mum’s from the Belleter Forest, she’s a moon elf. She’s a super powerful druid, but she moved away when she met my Dad to live in Eastborne. You know the East Square, with the little fountain? That’s where I grew up. Did a lot of running around when I was a kid, acrobatics, stuff like that, jumping from roof to roof. One of my dad’s friend’s taught me how to use knives, and how to do stupid tricks safely. My Dad plays a little guitar so he taught me, and I liked it, and I started learning more as a hobby until I realised I could turn it into a job. The dulcimer came a little later, a present from my grandma. Didn’t take long to pick it up after the guitar.” He finally stopped, taking a deep breath and smiling over at Lin.

Lin himself had been enraptured the whole time, listening to him speak and trying to take in everything he said as he said it. He tried to think of a question, too. It only seemed polite, seeing as Caelan had asked him one.

“The East Square of Eastborne?” he smiled, trying to seem friendly as he did. He wanted Caelan to feel every bit as warm as he did. “It sounds like the title of a song. Maybe you could write it one day?”

Caelan chuckled a little at that, and Lin tried to ignore his own ears twitching. He’d read about friendship, and maybe this was what it felt like.

“I’m not much of a writer, I mostly play other people’s songs, but maybe. I have been meaning to write a love song about my parents for a while. Maybe I’ll call it that?” he chuckled, tying the reins around the front of his saddle so he could stretch his arms up above his head. Lin understood, he knew most people couldn't just sit all day like he could. “How about you? You play anything, anything musical?”

Lin hummed as he thought, drumming his fingers along Shiloh’s neck softly. “I can sing traditional elvish songs” he said after a while. “Nothing much more than that, and they’re sung a very specific way, as I’m sure you know. And my mother played the harp, but I never really got the hang of it. Much too fiddly for me, I always played the wrong strings.”

Caelan smiled back, a smile that lit up his eyes and made Lin feel at home for the first time in a long time.

“Well, if you wanted I could teach you a little more about playing the dulcimer. Less strings than a harp, it’s much easier to remember which ones.”

Lin smiled back, ears twitching curiously in a way he hoped Caelan didn’t notice.

“I would like that very much.” he finally responded, smiling shyly as he did.


	4. Permanance

Caelan pulled his horse to a halt as soon as it started to get dark. He knew the two of them could both see just fine in the dark, but he’d rather not tempt fate with bandits. They had found themselves in the middle of a small copse of trees, the perfect place to retreat away from the path. It wouldn’t offer them complete safety, of course, someone could always follow them, but he had found it a much better solution to just staying out in the middle of a clearing in plain view of anyone who came past.

The fact Lin looked so exhausted from the day’s ride only added to his decision. He’d mentioned during the journey that he had ridden a lot, but Caelan wondered if it was either exaggurated or he’d never really ridden for the express purpose of actually travelling before, and not just for fun. He hadn’t said anything, of course, but Caelan had seen the look of discomfort on his face, and the way he failed to be able to sit still at all in his saddle.

“If we dismount here, we’ll bring these guys into the trees and set up camp.” He said, matter of factly. He had travelled with a fair few clients who thought they knew much better than he did. He never really pushed why they had hired him if they knew everything. At least didn’t seem to disagree, or argue at all, as he leant forward and rolled off his horse to dismount. If Caelan had already been on the floor he would have reached over to grab him as soon as he started stumbling, but to the elf’s credit he seemed to be able to keep himself semi-upright by hanging onto his saddle.

“I’m alright. I’m okay.” Lin murmured, and Caelan could suddenly see exactly why this guy had needed to hire a bodyguard. He really was the most uncoordinated elf he had ever met.

Caelan dismounted a lot easier than Lin did, jumping down from his horse despite his height and starting to lead them into the trees. It wouldn’t be perfect, the woods weren’t dense enough, but it would be much better than out in the open.

The woods weren’t anything like the ones he was used to growing up. Not that anything was like the Belleter Forest. But these woods didn’t even seem to be that active, either magical or normal animal activity. The trees were the ordinary, dark green that covered most of the continent, and even in the remaining daylight nothing appeared to be too strange. Caelan was, above all else, glad about that. He was perfectly comfortable being in woods like these on his own, or with someone who wasn’t capable of protecting himself. Being in the Belleter Forest alone was… much more dangerous than this.

After a few minutes of walking he found a clearing big enough to pitch a tent in, near enough to a stream to provide water and washing. He looked around, trying to spot anything that posed them any danger before moving to tie Kevah up to one of the nearest trees. Lin, for his credit, appeared to follow suit not long after. It had taken him a while to get through the trees in his loafers and fancy suit, sure, but once he was there he tied Shiloh nearby and took a second to take in the surroundings.

The ground still had some dead leaves from the winter previously, although luckily the warm weather had dried them out and it was plenty easy to sleep on the ground without too much difficulty. The trees around looked fairly young, sure, but plenty strong enough to hold the horses for the night.

“No offence, you don’t look like the type of guy to be used to camping like this.” Caelan chuckled, watching Lin over for any response. All he got in return was a smile, before the elf turned around to pull his bag off the back of his own horse and set it on the floor.

Caelan did the same with his, pulling out a tent and starting to pitch it quickly. He watched out of the corner of his eye as Lin pulled some apples out of his bag, taking one over to each of the horses and muttering in a form of Elvish he couldn’t quite pick out. It was similar to when he had heard Sun Elvish being spoken, but something about the cadence of it was off. He’d never heard Star Elves speak before, hardly ever even seen one before, and he took a guess that was what he was hearing now.

He had almost done with the tent when Lin pulled out two large bags of hay from his bag, and couldn’t help but baffle at the magic on display. Those bags were expensive. Far more expensive than Caelan would have been able to afford with even a years wage. Maybe if he stuck around for long enough, he’d be able to convince the man to buy one for him. He didn’t seem to have any problem with spending vast amounts of money at the drop of a hat.

Caelan pulled two sleeping bags out of his bag, thankful that he always carried a spare, and shuffled into the tent to put them in along with a couple of pillows. Thankfully it seemed to be warm enough to not have to worry about needing too many blankets.

When he came back out of the tent, Lin appeared to be halfway undressed. He’d stripped down his jacket and waistcoat already, folding them neatly before placing them in his bag. Caelan noticed a new suit lying over Shiloh’s back, and quickly put together he was getting changed for some reason. He didn’t quite understand the changing from one suit to another, almost identical suit mentality.

“I’m going to go down to the river to wash, did you want to join me?” Lin asked, apparently noticing the half-elf staring despite his back being turned.

Caelan thought for a second. Usually if he was travelling like this he’d just use magic to wash himself and his clothes, but he wouldn’t really say no to washing in the river. He had travelled along it before, it flowed from the Attlesoll peaks across the plains without any interruptions until further downstream, and it was most probably one of the cleanest rivers in the whole country to wash in at this point of it’s journey.

“Sure” he responded easily, watching Lin as he stripped off his shirt.

The tattoos had surprised him, yesterday. Thin black lines swirling all over his skin, following the flow of his body perfectly and seeming to move independently of his muscles. They stopped just short of where they would peek out of his collar, although now he could pay attention he noticed them lead up into his hair line on the back of his neck and wondered whether they continued unseen on his scalp. More lines congregated in bunches like vines around each of his hips, and even more disappeared under his waistline. Caelan knew from the night before that they didn’t stop until they hit his toes.

He had to admit he had been wondering about them the entire journey here. He had been a little… distracted last night, the thought of asking this man about why exactly he chose these tattoos and the symbolism of them far from his mind. Maybe it was an aesthetic thing, but then again he didn’t seem like the kind of man to get tattooed on a whim. They didn’t fit with the clothes he wore at all.

His Dad had a couple of tribal tattoos, ones he’d been given by comrades back in the army, and he supposed it could be something like that. They didn’t look the same, but there were enough different tribes and clans that it would be silly to assume none of them would have tattoos like this. Maybe it was an elven tribe? He’d heard about a lot of them from his mother, why couldn’t Lin be a part of one too?

It didn’t really seem like something he should ask just yet, though, and he followed in pulling off his shirt and jacket. He folded them neatly, placing them in his bag before retrieving a baggy sleep shirt and some comfortable trousers to take down to the river.

“You ready?” he asked over his shoulder at Lin, heading towards the water and hoping that he followed.

He heard him rather than watched him come up behind him, the almost crashing sound as Lin struggled through the undergrowth. He couldn’t help but smirk at it while the man couldn’t see. Lin obviously wasn’t the type of person to spend much time, well… outside, at all. Not surprising, the amount of times that he had seen him stumble on flat ground even in the short time knowing him.

It looked like the river here was shallower here than further downstream, but still deep enough to bathe in and Caelan was glad for it. He lay his clean clothes on a dry rock next to the water, before stripping down and stepping into the river. The water came up to his hips at the deepest point, and he took a moment to just enjoy the feel of water on his skin. It was colder than he expected, although a relief from the muggy weather outside. He figured it must be the snow melt from further up the mountains. That would probably explain why the water was so damn clear, too. There weren’t many rivers where you could see right down to the bottom easily.

He turned around to see Lin following his lead, slowly stripping down his shoes and the rest of his clothes, before appearing to pause and think for a moment. He looked across the river as if he was assessing the water before stepping in and Caelan wondered if he’d ever washed outside like this before.

“Come on, it’s fine” Caelan smiled, watching as Lin looked at him for a second, before coming closer to the middle of the river. He passed Caelan a small block, and Caelan looked up in confusion.

“It’s soap” Lin explained, and Caelan brought it up to his nose to smell it. It smelt of peppermint, with an undertone of what he thought might be lavender. “You can use it on your hair and on your body. It’s got faint magic in there, so it should work fine for both. One block is enough for one wash.” Lin carried on, and Caelan dipped the soap into the water to wet it before gliding it over his skin.

It felt good on his skin, much better than he was expecting from a quick wash in the middle of a forest. It smelt good too, the same scent that came from the block but amplified much more than it should have been. After he had finished with his body he took what was left of the soap and worked it through his hair gently, scent filling his nose and he wondered how long it would cling to him.

He looked back over at Lin as he worked through his hair, watching him wash over himself slowly and methodically. It was then his eyes were drawn to a necklace, showing stark against his pale skin. He’d seen it the night before, of course, but now he could take the time to look at it in more detail.

There was a delicate golden chain, one he could only assume was real gold knowing what he knew about Lin. It wasn’t long, keeping the necklace close to his skin, ending in a large setting which held a black gem. It was like nothing that Caelan had ever seen before. He called it a gem, because that what made sense in the context, but it looked more like a black hole of nothingness hanging in the middle of Lin’s chest. 

“That’s a nice necklace” He offered, before being completely surprised by the reaction. Lin’s ears pinned back for a second, and his eyes widened at the question before he returned to normal. Caelan guessed he was hoping he didn’t notice, and he probably wouldn’t have done if he hadn’t already been watching him so closely. Instead, Lin brought his hand up to his necklace, tapping it slightly before smiling.

“Thank you. It’s a family heirloom. I’m… very fond of it.” he responded, looking up to Caelan with a small smile.

“What stone is it?” Caelan asked, and Lin’s ears twitched again. Not enough to let him know where they were going to end up, but plenty enough to make him doubt whether the following words would be true or not.

“We’re not quite sure. It came into my possession like this, and I’ve asked jewellers but no one really knows. I think it might be smoky quartz, but it’s a bit too dark and opaque. I don’t really care if it’s a fake gem, you know? It’s more of a family thing than anything else.” he explained, running his thumb across the front of the gem gently.

“I understand” Caelan responded, quieting down to let Lin finish washing in peace. He wasn’t lying, either, he really did understand the importance of sentimental value over monetary value. It was never something he’d say out loud, but he was a little surprised and appreciative that it seemed to be something Lin put importance on as well. The elf seemed like someone who cared for nothing but the amount of money in his pocket, but carrying around a fake gem just because it was something his family gave him? Maybe he was a decent enough guy, after all. 

Lin finally let go of his necklace, going back to washing himself as Caelan simply stood in the water and enjoyed the feel. He couldn’t help but watch with some kind of curiosity, intrigued by how Lin methodically worked over his arms and torso, between dipping his hands into the water to wash his legs as well. 

It was almost funny watching him try and wash his hair. Despite his height the ends of it dipped in the water, but no matter how hard he tried and how much he bent down, he couldn’t get the top of his hair in the water.

“Do you want some help there, buddy?” Caelan chuckled, looking up to see Lin looking at him pleadingly with twitching ears. “You look like you could use some.”

It took him a few seconds to wade over, before putting a slight amount of pressure on Lin’s shoulders to get him to kneel. He just about managed to keep his head above water, and Caelan tipped his head backwards so he could look up at him and let his hair float freely in the water.

It looked magnificent, flowing like flames in the slight current underneath. Caelan couldn’t help running his hands through it gently, watching how Lin’s ears fluttered as he did. He wondered whether the elf even knew it was happening.

Caelan took his time lathering up the last of Lin’s soap in his hands, before instructing him to sit up again. Lin did, but Caelan still had to pull his hair up from out of the river to lather it up in the soap. It was a hell of a job, making sure each and every strand was properly coated and cleaned from the root to the tip.

“Gods, how do you do this on your own?” Caelan chuckled, massaging Lin’s scalp and being entranced by the way his ears fluttered around so fast they were blurring.

“I’m usually in a shower” Lin replied with a laugh, and the difference between his tone and the way his ears fluttered was stark. It would have been a good lie, if the ears hadn’t given it away. He was clearly enjoying this more than he let on.

Caelan tipped his head back again, washing the soap out before helping him stand to his feet. Whatever was in the soap made his hair silky smooth and run through his fingers, and Caelan wondered just how expensive it had been.

“Do you want me to braid it for you?” he asked, unable to help but keep running his fingers through the hair. “I can braid it all up and pin it to your head if you want?”

Lin turned around to look at him, but his hair was still plenty long enough for Caelan to hold onto it. “Oh, I… I suppose it could help. It would stop it getting tangled in all of the branches” he chuckled, leaning his head back into Caelan’s hand.

“Come on then” Caelan replied, starting to wade out of the river. “I’ll do it while you cook me dinner.”


	5. Inferno

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> CW: This chapter has some violence, death, and blood.

Lin stretched up as he woke up from his trance, pulling his hands down quickly onto his knees as he brushed the top of the tent. He stayed stock still for a moment, hoping that Caelan hadn’t woken up by the noise or the movement, but he didn’t seem to stir for a moment. 

He let out a sigh, not really wanting to wake the other man up but not wanting to sit here in silence until the rest of the night or even to the middle of the next day, depending on whenever Caelan wanted to actually awaken. He rolled over silently, stretching over to grab his trousers and slowly pull them back on, before sitting up and grabbing his shirt as well. Keeping one eye on Caelan he slipped out of the sleeping bag, taking a thankful breath when he didn’t seem to wake up or stir at all.

Stepping outside of the tent he brought his shoes out with him, slipping them on quietly and taking a breath of the night air. He could see just enough in the darkness to see the trees around them, and the horses appearing to sleep across the clearing. Stretching up again he heard his shoulders crack from the previous lack of movement. He walked around slowly, getting used to the motion again after the hours of lying down.

Caelan still didn’t wake up, and once again Lin was forced to wonder just how effective a bodyguard he was if he didn’t hear him pacing outside of the tent. It wasn’t that he was restless, per se, he just never really understood how people managed to sleep for so long. Didn’t they get bored, or stiff, or something? He could barely deal with the four hours he should trance every night, let alone a full eight or ten hours that Caelan seemed to get. How did he get anything done?

Looking around the clearing he didn’t see anything out of the ordinary, nothing changing too much from when they had gotten into bed. There would be no one out here, right? That’s why Caelan asked them to stop here? No one around here would know who he was, anyone who wanted to kill him for the bounty on his head would have done it when both Caelan and he were asleep, or when they were otherwise distracted.

The fire had died down, the remains of the quick meal he had cooked earlier still lying on the ground waiting for them to clean it up tomorrow. It hadn’t been touched at all, which let him know that there weren’t even wild animals around here. Maybe there were too many people going through here between the coast and the capital city for them to feel safe.

He headed down towards the river, picking his way quietly through the undergrowth and trying not to make too much of a fuss. The last thing that he wanted was to make Caelan wake up and spook him by not being there. If he got far enough away, then maybe he could be louder about it.

After a few minutes he found a dry rock by the side of the river, one with a clear view up to the stars above him. He wasn’t particularly religious, and he had never cared about the stars above as much as his father did, but he had to agree it was calming, and something for his overactive brain to do. 

The two moons were out in force, and the moonlight that shined down made it unlikely his skin was going to glow tonight. He sat back on the rock, staring up into the stars and trying to remember the star systems he had been taught as a child. Zagreus, Pavo, Dragontooth. 

The noise from the woods behind him happened too quickly for him to do anything about it. His eyes shot open, he sat further upright, and he tried to turn before one arm wrapped around his neck and the other covered his mouth.

Panic kicked in. Lin hadn’t been in many actual fights before, and all he could do was feel his logical mind slip from his head as adrenaline took over. Reaching into the inner pocket of his jacket on nothing but instinct alone, he wrapped his hand around his dagger and plunged it backwards into his attacker. He felt the resistance as the blade hit, pushing through the skin into muscle and felt blood splash onto his hand. The arm around his neck tightened, and for a second he regretted it.

He supposed he would have regretted it for more than a second, except he blacked out and felt himself fall into unconsciousness.

When he came to, he was cold. His eyes opened slowly, blinking a few times like he was moving through honey. Flat on his back, under a bed, he should have been confused but he knew exactly where he was. West Koorwelt. Well, it wasn’t too far from where he was right…

A jolt of pain shot through his skull when he thought about it. Not too far from where? This was where he lived. This was his home. The wooden floor beneath him was familiar, along with the slight smell of the tulips his assistant always bought for him. The smell of sulphur and ozone definitely wasn’t normal, though. Neither was the blood soaking through his suit or the ice spell currently spreading around his body and slowing down the beat of his heart.

It was dark, down here, silent apart from his slow, laboured breathing and the sounds of fighting outside. It sounded like the army had moved on further through the town, but the occasional clanking of swords or crashing of magic told him it was still dangerous.

Not that he would be moving soon. His entire body hurt, getting worse every time he took a breath. Was he dying? Was this what dying felt like? The spell that had hit him was making it’s way slowly through his body, getting closer and closer to his head by the second. If only it had hit him further up, it would have been a more merciful death at least. There would have been less time for him to wrestle with his pending doom.

A loud crash shook the very foundations of the building, and he used the last of his energy to grip tighter onto his dagger. He would go down fighting. He’d promised he would go down fighting.

“Lin?” His name was fuzzy, as if spoken over the crackling of a fire, if it had been amplified by ten. But his body seemed to recognise it as his heart swelled with warmth. Maybe he wasn’t dead. He managed to make a small noise, but he knew that no one that far away would hear.

More crashes, more noise of fighting, and he heard footsteps come into his room. Another call of his name, the same static behind it, and this time his crying pleas didn’t go unheard.

Moving was more painful than anything he had ever felt before in his entire life. Each and every nerve felt like it was on fire, almost exploding in his veins. No sound came out of his mouth except a strangled groan, not enough to alert anyone who could be waiting downstairs. The sound that came out of his rescuer was worse, still under the awful static and sounded like he was in more pain than Lin was.

Seeing him was a nightmare in itself. Lin knew who it was. He remembered somehow, like this was all a memory and not happening in the moment. But his face was nothing but an inferno, roaring flames obscuring his features and only intensifying when he spoke.

“Lin. Gods. Thank fuck, I thought I’d never find you.” The words felt more like a memory than something he was hearing himself. It spoke in the back of his mind, cutting through the crackling of the fire.

“You came for me” he croaked out, his own voice scratchy and painful to use.

“Of course I did.” the voice responded, fire burning brighter and brighter until it encompassed his entire vision. “I promised you I’d always be there for you.”

Lin awoke coughing and spluttering. Some kind of instinct forced him to roll over onto his front, and he coughed up dark blood onto the dirt. Gods above, his head ached.

“So do you usually go running off into the woods to get ambushed?”

The voice was familiar, and blissfully free of any interference. Turning over onto his back, he looked up at Caelan and the soft glow of his hands as they passed healing magic over his body.

“Uh. Didn’t think I’d get ambushed.” Lin responded, looking around to see the people who had attacked him lying dead on the ground. One had bled out from a wound in his front that he vaguely remembered inflicting, but the other had blood leaking out of his ears and nose. He wondered how Caelan had done it.

“Mmhm, but you did.” Caelan smiled, finishing up the healing and sitting back on the rock that Lin had been on. “What did they do to you? You were just on the ground whimpering. I was confused they didn’t kill you straight off.”

Lin struggled to sit up cross-legged, cradling his head in his hands. It had all felt so real. Half a memory and half in real time. His brain still throbbed, like a migraine that refused to leave him alone. 

“Uh. A nightmare spell. I think. I don’t know if you’ve ever had it done to you but, uh. It’s not pleasant. They wanted me to suffer, I think.” He looked up to Caelan, who didn’t seem to give any indication as to whether or not he knew what he was talking about.

Lin tried not to think of some of the implications of the spell. If he was unlucky, it could have lasting effects. And if there was one thing Lin was, it was unlucky.

“How did you find me, anyway?” he asked, trying to get the thought of a lifetime of nightmares out of his head.

Caelan seemed to appreciate the change of topic, too, relaxing a little on his rock. “I heard the struggle, but it took me a while to find you. Looked like you killed the one but the other was deep in rifling through your pockets.”

That sent Lin into another panic, one hand coming up to his necklace - still there, well hidden under his shirt and tie. Good. The other dug around his inside pocket, and his breath quickened. His dagger was gone. Was it still in the body on the ground? His eyes slid over but no, he was on his back and there certainly wasn’t a knife there. It was then he heard a soft, methodical tapping and his ears swivelled to the sound far before his head did.

Caelan had his dagger in hand, throwing it up in an arc before catching it and repeating the motion over and over again. Lin scrambled into action, jolting forward without thinking before making the most pathetic whine when Caelan held up his hand out of his reach.

“This is a very nice dagger for someone who claims not to fight.” he questioned, pointedly looking over the blade and the craftsmanship. “Perfectly balanced, intricately carved.” he waved a glowing hand over it, and Lin knew he was testing it for magic. “There’s… some sort of protection spell on it but for the life of me I cannot figure it out. Certainly not any magic I’ve ever seen.”

Lin felt himself blush, before he held his hand out to get the knife back. Caelan didn’t move to give it to him though, and he felt like a small child letting his hands fall into his lap.

“My sibling gave it to me.” he said in a small voice, looking everywhere except Caelan’s eyes. “It is magic. He put a special protection spell on it. It’ll never miss it’s target.” he murmured.

He heard Caelan hum, and held his hand out again, expecting the cold metal of the blade pressing into it. But nothing came back except Caelan’s voice.

“What does this say on the blade?” he asked, and Lin looked up to find him running his finger over the carvings. Lin held back a growl. That was his blade.

“It’s Star Elvish” he bit back at him, unable to help the anger laced in his voice. “It says ‘To protect you when I can’t.’”

Caelan seemed to find that satisfactory, and after a few more seconds passed the dagger back over to Lin. He took it quickly, holding it to his chest for a moment before slipping it back into it’s holster inside of his jacket.

“It’s an amazing blade. With an amazing spell on it. You’ll do well to keep it close.” he said, standing up and starting to head back towards the tent.

Lin stayed on the floor, looking up at the stars for another moment, trying to get his breathing and his heart to slow down. They were still the same stars, still the same moons. He was still alive, still here to fight another day.

“You’re coming too” Caelan called behind him, forcing Lin to turn around to see him stood at the edge of the small clearing. “And you’re not fucking wandering off on your own again, even if I have to sleep on top of you.”


	6. Home

The next day was as uneventful as Caelan could hope for after the night before. Lin had apparently not tranced again, if the fact he had gotten through almost an entire book while not moving from his position next to him was any clue. Spirits hadn’t exactly been… high… for the rest of the day, but at least they had still been talking and Lin didn’t seem too shaken up by the experience. He’d even explained that he’d had it happen to him before, once or twice, but usually he had a lot more people around him to help out.

That night they found themselves another small copse of woods, and another small clearing further in in order to camp. There wasn’t a source of water here, which meant no luxury of actual physical bathing, but Caelan still managed to use his magic so at least they were clean. If Lin was put off by it, he didn’t show it at all.

The clearing that they found was more dirt than foliage, the thicker canopy of the trees above stopping anything from growing on the forest floor, and now it was spring the previous autumn’s leaves had already composted down. Caelan didn’t really mind, it made the ground soft and more pleasant to lie on through the tent.

They ate just as well as they did the first night, more bread and cured meats that Lin had brought with him, along with some dried fruit to follow it up. Caelan ate fairly well, sure, but he was used to simple rations when he was camping in the wilderness like this, or hunting and foraging for his own food, so this made a nice change. Lin told stories around the camp fire, stories from when he used to travel with his family and the large camps they used to set up. Caelan could almost see the large colourful tents, full of gold thread and velvet blankets with a full company of servants and chefs. He didn’t know whether Lin was embellishing, but the way he told his stories was more than enough entertainment for the night. Maybe in a different life he could have been a travelling entertainer.

They spoke a bit more in bed, too, curled up in the same sleeping bag together, Lin’s head under the covers as he traced circles on his abs. Caelan’s hand was busy playing with the elf’s hair, twisting it around and around in his fingers before brushing and flattening it back down again. Lin’s voice wasn’t nearly as tired as it should have been, and Caelan couldn’t help but wonder how many nights he spent up working to get used to being up so late. Then again, it could just be a bonus of never having to sleep. His mother never really seemed tired, even when she chose to trance over sleeping the full night. The more he thought about it, as he was finally drifting off to sleep to the sound of more of Lin’s stories. He was pretty sure even if he didn’t have to he would still spend the entire night sleeping. Sleep was just too good a feeling to pass up.

His living room was colder than normal, and a part of Caelan wished he had brought a blanket with him. He was lounging on the sofa, halfway through a good book with his feet up on the coffee. Leliana would be mad at him if she saw, but she was already asleep so it was fine. As long as he remembered to clean the top off afterwards. It was dark enough for him to desperately need his dark vision to see, but he must have been too tired to cast magic or something because every time he tried to cast a light spell it just didn’t work.

It took a few minutes for him to figure out that whatever he was reading just… wasn’t going in. He got to the bottom of the page, and he realised he had no idea what it said. He went back through, carefully reading it and trying to take in the words but nothing seemed to sink in. The more he thought, the more he realised that he had no idea what this entire book was about. Maybe he was tired, but he didn’t really feel it.

He closed the book, reading the front cover, and the blurb, and the spine, and not understanding a word that he saw. He almost seemed like he did, he read the word when he got to it but it just didn’t seem to make any sense looking at an entire sentence, almost like each word flew from his head as soon as he moved on to the next word.

His brows furrowed, and he opened it up onto a random page to see if he had more of a chance there. Was he ill? Had someone been messing with his head?

Halfway through trying to comprehend the page, desperately reading the words out loud to try and make them stay for any extended amount of time, he suddenly saw a dark red spot appear on the page. He stared at for a moment, almost hearing his brain tick over as he tried to understand what it was. Another drop, and a splash this time told him it was coming from somewhere above. Looking up the ceiling was obscured, musky darkness stopping him from seeing the pale wood he knew was there. Maybe it was later than he thought.

Another drop fell from the darkness, almost in slow motion, hanging in the air before splashing down onto the book, this time sending smaller droplets scattering across the page. Caelan almost instinctively held out a hand, waiting for the next drop before bringing it up to his nose to smell it.

It was blood. The iron tang was unmistakable for someone in his kind of work. But why would there be blood dripping from the ceiling? He’d seen it before, plenty of times, and it only really occurred when there was an awful lot of blood on the floor above. More blood loss than was really survivable.

And the room directly above him was…

He was standing up in an instant, book tumbling to the floor forgotten as he broke into a sprint. It took him less than a second to cross the room, vaulting over the other chair on his way to the door. Grabbing onto the door knob he yanked at it in a panic, struggling with it for a moment before managing to break through the latch to leave it hanging on the hinges. 

The hall was dark, too, none of the light that usually streamed in from the street making it through the windows. Was it that late the street lights were out? Had the usual lamp lighters been held up somewhere and unable to complete their job? The questions were asked in the back of his head, somewhere buried which screamed at him that something here was wrong, but he ignored it. There were much more pressing matters to attend to right now, he could forget about the darkness.

He hit the stairs running, taking them two at a time as they stretched up into the darkness above him. He kept up his speed longer than he thought possible, there was no way he had this many stairs in his house. He’d lived here for seven years, he knew the layout of his house, and still his brain pushed him forward. His logical brain had shut down entirely, engulfed by the sheer adrenaline coursing through his veins and forcing him to run faster, harder.

Lactic acid filled his muscles, pushing through ache to a sharp pain that only intensified with every step he took. His two steps turned to one, no matter how much he needed to keep going forward he couldn’t ignore the sheer exhaustion that was trying to take over him.

No. Not again. Not to them. They deserved so much more. He couldn’t leave them again.

With a burst of energy accompanied by a scream he used the last scraps of his energy to sprint forward harder, faster than before. Still the stairs stretched ahead of him, a never ending tunnel into darkness. But he had to do this.

The top of the stairs came so quickly, so suddenly that he stumbled as his legs struggled to find the rhythm after so long pressing upwards. He didn’t even have time to think as he turned, pivoting on one foot as he headed towards her room. The hallway stretched ahead of him but he kept pushing forward. There couldn’t be that much more, not that much further now. His heart was pounding in his ears, lungs burning and he could almost feel the blood pumping through his veins.

His eyes closed as he sprinted forward, hoping that focusing the energy he used on seeing on his legs would propel him further and further to where he needed to be.

The thick wood of the bedroom door stopped him suddenly, pain blossoming across the entire front of his body even though he knew, logically, that he wouldn’t have hit it with every part of him at once. He opened his eyes again, groping blindly for the door handle in the pitch blackness that had overtaken the house. A scream of frustration left his lungs the longer it took for him to find it, and he took a few steps back to shove his shoulder against the frame. He had never been the strongest man, but with every connection the door shuddered until it splintered under his weight.

As soon as the door opened his eyes were flooded with light. It was almost daylight it was so bright, and he had to blink two or three times in order to clear the spots from his vision. The difference was blinding, sending needles of pains into the back of his eyeballs and blossoming through his brain.

His mind ticked over slowly as he looked over the room. It was so, so familiar, the pastel pink walls and the matching bed pressed against the wall next to the window. Small painted flowers that he knew were perfectly accurate to the ones found in the Belleter Forest dotted the walls, enchanted paint letting them sparkle even in the daylight.

It was full of pictures too, and paintings. His family, both close and extended, smiling back at him from the paper trapped behind glass. He remembered those smiles being full of love, happiness, but now they just looked cold and empty as they lay on the dressing table and desk in the room.

An easel stood in the corner, paint still wet from the cruder family portrait that was in progress on the canvas. A brush lay across the floor, blue paint pooling on the carpet beneath it. 

Everything entered his brain at once, all of the information from the room that he either saw or remembered. But his eyes were drawn to the centre of the room, to what he knew he was there and what he knew he had to face again.

A body, in the middle of the room. Covered in blood from the stab wounds to her chest and the gaping wound across her neck. Hair haloed around her head, only half tied back with a partially snapped band. Hand still clutched onto her mace where she’d gone down fighting. 

Maybe, someday, Caelan would stop hurting enough to be proud of her for that.

He knew his eyes would follow the line up to the bundle of blankets on the bed. He desperately didn’t want to, as if it wasn’t true if he didn’t look up. As if he could forget if had ever happened if he just resisted looking at those blood soaked blankets.

But he couldn’t. He was stupid to ever think he could. 

The pink of the blankets were stained red, blood still wet enough to be glistening slightly in the sun. She had tried to hide. She had thought her blankets would save her.

Caelan fell to his knees, the shock of the impact jarring up his thighs to his hips. Tears were already falling down his cheeks, splashing on the floor as he was torn between looking at their faces again and desperately trying to drag his eyes away. 

Hands came up to cover his face as he sobbed, falling to his side on the floor. This couldn’t be happening, this couldn’t be happening, this couldn’t…

Caelan came too with a gasp. Someone had been shaking his shoulder, and he prepared a magic spell in his hands. He was going to kill them. They had hurt his girls and they were going to pay.

He could see two glowing red eyes before his vision adjusted to the dark, and they made him pause if only for a second. None of the men that did this had red eyes. It couldn’t be them.

After a few seconds his eyes came into focus, the red eyes surrounded by a worried face framed with long, red hair that reached the floor next to him.

Lin.

“Are you okay? Your heartbeat was going crazy.” Lin asked, ears dropped down with concern in his eyes. Caelan couldn’t tell what time it was, but it must have been earlier on in the night because it looked like Lin was still curled up in bed and not reading like he usually did when he woke up.

Caelan took a deep breath, feeling tears staining his cheeks and he brought his hands up to wipe them away even though he knew it was far too late. He had no idea what to do, what to say. This wasn’t Lin’s burden to hold, but in the darkness of the night and the almost intimacy of the woods he almost felt like he could share his problem.

“It was a nightmare.” he finally settled on, trying to regulate his breathing to calm his still pounding heart. “They happen sometimes. Sorry, I should have warned you.”

Lin’s face softened even more, and within second he was lying on his back, pushing the blankets down to let Caelan rest on his chest. The half-elf had no idea when or how he’d figured out how he didn’t like his face being covered. But Lin was warm, and the arms around his waist more than a little comforting, and right now he would be incapable of saying no.

“Do you want to talk about it?” Lin asked, voice soothing and deep enough to rumble in his chest from Caelan’s position. His eyes were still open, and he couldn’t help but look down the line of the elf’s stomach to watch it rising and falling with his breaths. Still here. Still alive.

“I… would really rather not.” Caelan replied slowly. It wasn’t that he was debating telling him, anything but, but he needed to find the right way to answer the question.

“Alright” Lin responded, and if he was offended at all he didn’t show it. “You fell asleep while I was telling you about my research earlier. Did you want me to carry on?”

Caelan could do nothing but odd, appreciating the distraction and the boring topic to try and lull him back to sleep. Maybe this time the nightmares would stay away.


	7. All Roads Lead to Winterdrift

At least the rest of the night was uneventful, and soon the two men found themselves on the final stretch towards Winterdrift. Lin had spent the rest of the night talking in a low voice to Caelan, wanting to keep the nightmares at bay as much as he could and hoping the droning of his voice would help. At least he had kind of settled into the motions of travel on horseback now, and even Shihoh was getting more comfortable being out and around, especially with Caelan being so close to her. They had finally come over the last slight hill before reaching the gates of the city, and they could see the towering buildings and arches of the largest city in the country.

The city shone in the spring sunlight, the white marble and glass reflecting the light in a myriad of directions. Even Lin didn’t remember far enough back to when the city was constructed, but his grandfather had showed him paintings of when it was still wooden structures with a few buildings of stone, back before elves took over the city. Of course, they’d since lost control back to humans again before reaching an… amicable enough truce, but not before redesigning the entire city like the ancient halls of the sun elves.

The road had gotten much busier the closer they got to the city, many branches merging as they converged on one of only two gates leading into the capital. Lin struggled between riding with the straightest back he could, like he had been taught, and trying to hide his face so no one noticed him. As much as he tried, it didn’t work. People were still staring, and he could almost hear the whispers between them. He hoped it was just because Star Elves were so rare, and not because they knew exactly who he was. 

Caelan, for his credit, seemed to be relatively okay with all the whispers and stares. He was a much more professional bodyguard than the last one Lin had employed.

“Have you been to Winterdrift before?” Lin asked, trying to be as casual as he could to distract him from the number of people watching them.

“Once or twice” Caelan mused, carefully maneuvering his horse into the line of people trying to get passed the guards. “Once when I was a lot younger, with my parents, and once five or so years ago. How about you?”

Lin hummed, lining up in front of Caelan so he could talk to the guards first. Not that he didn’t think that Caelan was professional enough, he just knew that he would have more sway with them than him. 

“I’ve stayed here a lot, honestly. I have friends that live here, although I think they’re out travelling at the moment. We can stay at their place. If they’re there they’ll leave us be, and if not we’ll have the place to ourselves.”

He didn’t want to tell Caelan where exactly they were staying quite yet. It could be… a little over the top and he didn’t want to scare him off. Not that it wouldn’t be much easier to find a bodyguard here rather than in Peatsland.

Lin should have expected to be spotted by one of the guards and called forward ahead of the queue. That didn’t mean he didn’t hate it, hated the looks he got from everyone he passed, but it was difficult to say no, not to mention it always raised the guard’s suspicions. After a quick look to make sure Caelan was coming too he followed the guard up to one of the smaller side gates. That’s where he realised he was called up purely because he was a Star Elf, not because he had any idea who he actually was.

“Name?” The guard said, ignoring Caelan completely and just looking at Lin. He was a wood elf, and sounded like he was in the last of his years but it was always difficult to tell with elves.

“Lin Yanion Chasso.” Lin replied easily, knowing his name would be kept on record. The guard didn’t even bother to look, and Lin winced at the knowledge that he most definitely knew the name.

“And the half-elf?” the guard asked, looking up to Caelan with barely concealed suspicion. Lin opened his mouth to respond, but Caelan got there before him.

“Caelan Maedhros Harlaw” he responded, and Lin tried not to pull a face. He knew that he was asking Lin to answer for him. He disagreed, of course, Caelan could speak for himself. But that didn’t mean he didn’t make this harder to work with by speaking.

“He’s my bodyguard.” Lin added, seeing the look of displeasure on the guard’s face. “I have business at the Winterdrift branch of the university. I could call the dean, if you wished?”

That seemed to kick the guard into action, apparently forgetting any plans he had to question Caelan further.

“That won’t be necessary.” he replied, simply opening the gate for them and allowing them through. “Enjoy your time in Winderdrift, Sir.”

Lin waited until they were through the gate and it was closed again before letting out a long, slow breath.

“That was easier than I’ve ever had it, getting into the city.” Caelan joked, pulling up alongside him again as they fell into step and followed Lin’s lead.

“You think?” Lin chuckled, leading the way through the streets towards the house they would be staying in. They would be sticking to the main streets, more crowded than the others, and he didn’t know if it was blessing or a curse. A blessing, because they were far less likely to be ambushed, and a curse because it meant many more people would recognise who he was, and he knew how quickly word got around. 

“Every time I’ve been here before I’ve been queuing for hours. Maybe I just have to use your name. Did you say your middle name was Yanion?” Caelan chuckled, looking across to him with a smirk. Lin shot a look back. He didn’t want to admit that it was only one of his middle names.

“And your middle name is Maedhros. I’m guessing that was your mother’s doing? Very Elvish.” Lin responded, watching Caelan puff out his cheeks and look straight forward where they were going. “Yeah.” Lin chuckled, smiling that he hadn’t let the half-elf win. “I thought that would make you shut up.”

Inside of the city was just as impressive as the view from outside. Whereas only the top of the taller buildings tended to be made of marble, the lower portions and smaller buildings were made of a pale sandstone and crystal clear glass. The streets were kept clean, magical constructions roaming the streets to eradicate any dirt or litter. Locals and tourists alike mingled around the streets, everyone heading to somewhere they had to be but not seeming too rushed about it.

Lin led Shiloh through the streets, heading around the outskirts of the city and avoiding the inner city streets. The houses here were larger than those closer into the capital, most of them fenced off by their own security gates. Some of the houses even had their own employees stood guard, and Lin made sure to avoid them. He was sure no trouble would start, but he was well aware of their trigger happy nature and how Shiloh could easily trigger it.

He made sure to watch Caelan’s face the closer they got to the house they would be staying at. He knew it was over the top, and excessive, but it had been his friend’s decision not his. A part of him would have preferred them to stay somewhere slightly less in your face and pretentious, but it seemed stupid to spend money to stay at a hotel when a free bed was right here.

The house in question was larger than Lin’s, a huge footprint towards the northern end of town. It was essentially split into three sections, one large middle section made of a pure white marble, and two side sections completely gilded. A long driveway led its way to a large stables, and after getting past the wrought iron gate with a whispered password in Draconic Lin led both of the horses up towards it.

He looked around to see Caelan staring at the house, Kevah moving more of his own accord more than under the half-elf’s instruction.

“So, uh, you’re super rich, right?” Caelan said with a small laugh, seemingly snapping out of it as he followed Lin into the stables. The building was empty, as Lin had suspected, which told him that the family were out of town.

“Well, this isn’t my house” Lin spoke easily, rolling off Shiloh and moving her into her own compartment before setting about taking her saddle and looking after her methodically.

“But you are friends with the owners. People who live in houses like this usually only run in very small circles, and those circles are full of other rich people.” Caelan responded, going through the same routine with Kevah in the next compartment. He didn’t seem like he would leave if Lin said he was rich, or that he was particularly judging him, but Lin still felt strange, as if he was bragging if he turned around and told him that yes, actually, I am rich.

“Well, I can tell you I’m nowhere near as rich as the owner of this house but… yes. I’m definitely in the upper class.” he replied, speaking slowly and watching Caelan carefully as if to make sure he didn’t run away. But instead he just shrugged, carrying on with his motions caring for the horse he was borrowing.

“Well… it wasn’t hard to guess.” Caelan chuckled, pulling an apple out of his bag and feeding it to Kevah. “You’re giving me over a hundred gold to take you across the country. One hundred gold for just over a weeks work, and by the looks of it I’m spending at least a part of that week in luxury. You had to be rich.”

Lin huffed, turning around and looking at Caelan more fully. 

“I could have paid you less, you know.” he chuckled, heading to walk back out of the stable. He’d hire someone to come and look after the horses, maybe treat them a bit as well. They had been helping them since the beginning of the journey, after all, they definitely deserved it.

Lin stopped just outside of the stables, looking up into the morning sun. It was still just before noon, plenty enough time for them to do something for the rest of the day. A part of him was desperate to spend some more time with Caelan, but something more important waited. He turned back to Caelan waiting for him to leave the stables with him.

“Would you mind if I went to the library for the afternoon?” Lin asked, trying to seem somewhat casual while still watching Caelan carefully. If he seemed upset about splitting up, Lin supposed he could always come back to the library some other time. It wasn’t like it was moving anywhere.

Caelan shook his head, still standing awkwardly with his bag over his shoulder and Lin supposed that maybe they should go in and wash up first. He turned around, heading towards the main house and using another arcane word to open the door and hold it open for Caelan.

Inside was just as pretentious as the outside of the house, all marble and velvet trimmed in gold. Lin was used to it, having been in the house many times, but he did see Caelan’s eyes darting around as he apparently tried to take everything in.

“My room is upstairs.” Lin offered helpfully, which at least seemed to pull Caelan out of whatever daze he was in.

“You have a room here?” he chuckled, starting to follow Lin up the large ornate stairs easily. “And I thought you said you weren’t rich.”

Lin stuck out his tongue, and almost instantly regretted it. It was childish, immature, but if it bothered Caelan he didn’t show it.

“I stayed here a lot. Both as a kid and after growing up. The friends who live here have helped me out and I try to help them out when I can. Not to mention I like having a place I can stay whenever I’m in the capital.” he explained, moving along the hallway and opening up the farthest door on the right.

His room here was plain, but unmistakably his. The majority of the room was taken up by a large four poster bed, still made as if he had left it this morning. He appreciated that, that a room was always ready here. For most of his life this had been more of his home than the one he lived in. A wardrobe with a few spare clothes, both everyday and outfits for more fancy occasions, stood on one side of a bathroom door while a writing desk sat on the other. He watched as Caelan moved over to it, placing his bag an dulcimer down carefully before stretching his arms up and over his head.

“What do you say we have a shower, head out for some lunch and then I can go to the library.” Lin said with a smile, watching Caelan even as he put his own bag down next to the wardrobe. “There’s some nice cafes around, or bookstores. However you wanted to spend your time, I can drop you off and pick you up there. Or you can meet me at the library when you’re bored?”

Caelan appeared to think for a second, before starting to strip out of his jacket easily. “Yeah. Sounds like a good day.”


	8. The Chasso Curse

Lunch had been nice, he supposed. Lin had taken him to a takeaway, a small bakery selling sandwiches and other pastries and cakes along with honestly pretty excessive milkshakes, before walking out to a park to find a bench to sit on. It was definitely the type of park he would have expected to find in Winterdrift, tall trees and perfectly pruned flowerbeds, a man playing a lute nearby not for money but just to enjoy it. It was idyllic, and Caelan was torn between wanting to live here and knowing he’d get bored in less than a day.

They joked between each other, talking about everything and nothing in between people watching. It was nice, in a way, if a little too domestic for Caelan’s tastes. But a nice respite from his normal life. Not that he’d be particularly upset when they got to Hyrandell and they’d go their separate ways. That’s all this was, a respite. Nothing more.

Lin had given him a map to the library he was spending his afternoon in, along with detailed instructions on how to get in if he needed to. He thought the small wax stamp that the elf gave him to signify he was actually in his employ was a bit much, and hopefully he wouldn’t need it. The time apart would probably do them both some good, the Gods knew that having to spend so long with one person without a break was sure to either drive you insane or drive a wedge between you.

In the end he had found a small bookshop, attached to a small cafe that seemed perfect for what he wanted. The bell rang as soon as he walked in, filling the entirety of the tiny shop and letting them know he’d arrived. For a while it seemed that there was no one manning the counter, until an elderly gnome woman seemingly appeared from nowhere behind some bookshelves and made her way up to the counter. Caelan smiled politely, before heading back to peruse her stock for a while. A particularly interesting novel caught his eye, not something he would usually go for but he did fancy a change once in a while. He had to use his own money to pay for it, which he was annoyingly running rather short on, but he didn’t want to deal with the amount of change that would come from breaking one of the platinum pieces here. Nor did he want to draw too much attention to himself by pulling that amount of money out to pay for a small, couple silver pieces book.

Eventually he managed to find a small corner in the cafe, near to the fire, and ordered a coffee to keep him alert for the rest of the afternoon as he settled in. As fun as it sounded to take a nap here, he was in the middle of an unknown city and he’d rather not get himself ambushed. A part of him wanted to curl his feet up on the sofa, but he didn’t really know the custom here. Would it be rude? Probably. He’d just have to deal with trying to get as horizontal as he physically could without putting his feet up on the furniture.

The gnome finally came over with his coffee, placing it carefully on the table before hovering around for a few moments. Caelan tried not to notice, he did, but after a minute or two he couldn’t help but look up with a smile.

“Can I help you?” he asked in a friendly voice. He’d tipped enough, right? He could never remember just how much was expected in the different cities.

The gnome looked embarrassed, and it was only then Caelan realised she had been in some sort of turmoil whether or not to actually speak.

“Well… no, I was just wondering if I could help you?” she replied, looking back and forth between Caelan and the chair opposite him. The half-elf couldn’t help but look around the shop. There was a woman looking at books towards the back of the cramped space, but other than that there were no more customers. It must have been a quiet day.

“Well, I’m fine with just my coffee for now, I just ate, but thank you!” he responded, hoping to get the woman to go away without offending her too much.

“Ah, well, no.” the gnome continued, looking so torn that Caelan half wanted to be able to put her out of her misery. “It’s just… you’re involved with the Chasso boy, aren’t you?”

Caelan couldn’t help but pause at that. The word ‘involved’ was a bit much, maybe, but he supposed from an outside perspective the two of them eating lunch and maybe making out a little in the park did somewhat look like a date. But that had only just happened, had someone followed him here? Or did word really just travel that fast in cities? He couldn’t help but take stock of his surroundings, preparing himself in case he needed to escape. 

“I’m his bodyguard” Caelan clarified, sitting up further in his seat while trying not to look too on edge at the questioning. There could still be an innocent explanation for this. The woman did look friendly, after all, but Caelan learnt long ago not to judge a book by it’s cover.

“I wanted to warn you.” the gnome said, appearing to gain more and more confidence the longer this conversation went on, which Caelan had to admit really didn’t do much for his paranoia.

“About what?” His book was forgotten now, and he was sat almost forward in his seat. Lin did mention bounties on his head, maybe this related to that? Maybe this lady knew about some plot against his life, or a potential kidnapping. In any case, even Caelan was smart enough to know any information could be important.

“That boy is cursed.” 

Okay. That wasn’t what Caelan expected at all. Sure, Lin was a little clumsy, and he had managed to attract exactly the wrong attention the first night of being out in the wilderness, but that didn’t necessarily mean he was cursed. Hell, Caelan felt he was more likely to be cursed than that.

“Anyone he spends time with, anyone he touches, meets a tragic end.” the gnome continued, seeming to find her flow now. She wasn’t concerned for Lin, she was concerned for Caelan.

“What do you mean?” he asked, gesturing for the woman to join him across the table but still lowering his voice. You never knew just who could be listening at any time. The gnome took the hint, hopping up on the opposite chair and matching him in the same quiet voice.

“How much do you know?” she asked, and Caelan shook his head, indicating that he knew absolutely nothing, before the gnome sighed and continued on with her tale.

“The Chasso’s are, or probably more accurately were, the last great house of the Star Elves. Rumours of their curse have been aboutlonger than I have been alive, but that boy seemed to exacerbate it. Why, the most powerful wizarding family in the country, maybe even the world, to give birth to a child without the ability for any magical power? What else but a curse.”

Caelan couldn’t help but grimace a little. People were far too quick to assign blame to a curse nowadays, and even if he didn’t understand it Lin had been insistent that his lack of magic had a scientific explanation behind it. But the gnome didn’t appear to have finished.

“And then the tragedy struck.” She continued, and at least she did look genuinely upset. “It was a shame, so many young lives snuffed out all at once.”

Caelan raised an eyebrow at that. Usually if there had been some kind of a massacre, the news would have reached even the remotest part of the continent. 

“You didn’t hear? Where have you even been?” He could see her eyeing him with skepticism, and it didn’t feel great. He had been travelling from town to town, mostly in the south of the country and in rural areas. Taking on odd jobs, clearing out a cave of monsters, that kind of thing. News hadn’t really reached him that far out from civilisation.

He could do nothing but shrug in response, not really wanting to go through his life story with this woman. She still looked a little concerned, almost like she didn’t believe him, but finally sighed and continued her story.

“The whole Chasso family were killed. No one knows who did it, or what happened, just everyone but one of the sons were killed. Not just in one day, either, but over a few weeks. Lin’s immediate family went first, then some of the older remaining members, and slowly blossomed out until now there aren’t many left. Star Elves certainly are a dying breed, right about now. Some of the most powerful wizards knocked out, all in one go. Nothing natural could have done that. The Chasso curse struck again.”

Caelan kept staring for a while, waiting for the gnome to elaborate, or say it was some kind of joke, or something, but she just looked at him with utter seriousness. He thought for a few seconds, before nodding slightly to her.

“Thank you, for letting me know. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have some thinking to do.”

That evening he was sat opposite Lin in the kitchen of the house they were staying in. Well, he said house, it really was more of a mansion. The kitchen itself seemed like it was made to cater to grand parties, not just two guys sat around eating dinner.

Not that dinner wasn’t good. He’d eaten much better on the road since he had joined up with Lin but this, this was something else. The elf had met him back at the house with some cuts of steak and a variety of fresh vegetables, and had spent the last hour or so running around trying to get it all cooked while Caelan sat back and watched, making polite conversation where he could.

He was torn. A part of him wanted to ask about what had happened, get more information on just what went down that day, but another part of him realised that maybe it just wasn’t his business at all. Lin had been nothing but nice to him, and obviously wasn’t a danger. Surely he would have mentioned something if he thought something was at risk of hurting either of them?

“Copper for your thoughts?” Lin asked, taking a bite of his steak with a smile, and Caelan realised he must have been quiet for slightly too long as he contemplated.

“Oh, nothing really.” he responded easily, and Lin seemed to fall for the lie easily. “Just thinking of the book I bought earlier. It’s good.”

That was the trick to lying. Mix as much of the truth in there as possible. It was a good book, and he had been enjoying it. A part of him couldn’t wait to get back to it as soon as possible.

“Oh, what’s it about?” Lin asked curiously, and Caelan would have to be blind not to see the opportunity there. He had seemed to believe the last lie pretty easily, what was the harm of going in with another?

“It’s about a curse.” Caelan responded, watching Lin’s face carefully. He didn’t seem to react with anything except genuine intrigue.

“Oh?” he asked, one ear actually pricking up in interest, and that told Caelan all he needed to know. Controlling your ears as an elf was incredibly difficult. Lin couldn’t be concerned about it, otherwise his ears would be pinned back. “What kind of a curse is it?”

Caelan waved his fork casually, as if he was trying to brush off the conversation. “Oh, nothing particularly interesting. Just a guy that curses everyone around him. Kinda a King Midas tale. I’m enjoying it more for the characters than the plot and the writing.”

Lin nodded, and if he was worried about the conversation he was incredibly good at hiding it. “Oh, I might have to borrow it once you’re finished. It sounds interesting. Although if it’s written poorly it might annoy me. I’m a bit of a stickler, like that.” he shrugged, following it with a small smile as if he was trying to apologise for it.

Ah. That might lead to a problem. The book wasn’t terribly written, and it definitely wasn’t about what Caelan said it was. Maybe he could try and find one like that before he claimed he had finished it? But that seemed like a lot of work, and Lin had already figured out just how fast of a reader he was at this point.

“Oh, of course. No use buying another copy when you can borrow mine, right?” he said casually, hiding his concern at just how he was going to find a book that was like what he described.

“Yeah!” Lin responded, and Caelan wondered if he was this easy to lie to all the time, or if it was just because it was him. “You know, I have a lot of books upstairs that I barely read anymore, if you wanted to borrow them?”

Caelan agreed, before getting back to eating easily. This journey had been igniting all sorts of feelings in him. Lin was nice, sure, and he was glad he wasn’t stuck with someone who was so far up their own arse they didn’t know it, or someone who didn’t want to talk at all, or someone who just saw him as a possession to throw to the side. But on the other hand it was all so domestic. Like they were husbands, more than an employer and an employee. And Caelan didn’t want that. Didn’t know if he was ready for that, just yet.

Lin had already offered him more odd jobs when he got to Hyrandell, and it was an amazing offer. He could stay there in the city, find a small apartment somewhere. It would be a steady stream of income, and the Gods knew that there were enough rich people in Hyrandell who wanted to hire bards for a variety of reasons. It was a short three day journey back to his parents, which was much shorter than where he had been for the last six months or so, and it wasn’t like his Dad was getting any younger.

But that involved spending more and more time around this elf and whereas he wouldn’t complain as such, he wasn’t sure if they wanted the same thing. Sure, the sex was good, and Lin was gorgeous, but Caelan would hate to string him along if he was looking for something more than that. Caelan didn’t want a boyfriend, didn’t want a relationship and sure, he’d been with enough people who most certainly thought they were going to make an honest husband out of him but…

It was hard to explain. Lin was nicer than them. He didn’t push Caelan into things he didn’t want to do. He didn’t try and bribe him with gifts, even though the Gods knew he could probably afford to. He wasn’t pushy about taking their relationship any further, or asking for them to become exclusive, or anything like that. 

“Are you sure you’re okay?” Lin asked after a while, and Caelan realised he had been lost in his own thoughts again for far too long. This wasn’t fair on Lin, to do this here, in front of him. He had plenty of time to figure it all out, anyway.

“Of course.” he responded with a smile, finishing up the last of his food. “Now, did you mention something about dessert?”


	9. A Party

The party was already thrumming downstairs as Lin pulled his clothes on. His suit had been swapped out for more traditional Elvish clothes, as had been requested, long green robes that clung tightly to his chest but flowed loose around his hips and legs. He hated wearing clothes like these, they restricted his movement too much, made him look more feminine, but he knew the arguments it would cause if he didn’t wear it.

He took his time brushing out his hair, pulling it up into a more traditional braid than normal, too, despite the way it tugged on his scalp and took far more time than he usually liked taking on something so simple. Why he couldn’t just turn up in his normal attire, he’d never know, but when the owner of the house demanded you wear a particular type of clothing, you wore that particular type of clothing no matter how uncomfortable it made you.

“You look dumb.”

That same voice, half familiar and half alien to him. Accompanied by the same roaring, crackling fire as if it came from his lungs along with the words. A part of him didn’t want to turn, didn’t want to see the once beautiful face engulfed in flames, but the longer he resisted it the more it made his brain hurt inside his head.

The man looked much better than he did, then again he always did. He’d opted for red instead of green, and for a second Lin thought his entire body was engulfed rather than just his face. He wore more of a dress than robes, the fabric clinging tightly down his legs apart from a long slit up the one side to his hip, and ornamental swords hung off his belt. Long ginger ringlets fell around his face, almost complementing the fire they surrounded. A faint memory remembered bright red lips, and redder eyes.

“It’s not an insult if I already know it’s true” he laughed back, turning back to the mirror to finish up the braid before turning around to take the man’s arm. “Father’s going to kill you if you go downstairs wearing that, you know.”

Lin saw the grin in his mind rather than on his sibling’s face, the flickering of the flames obscuring it from his view. He hoped it wouldn’t be obscured forever. He wanted to see that grin again.

“Why? It’s Grandfather’s. I just… adjusted it a little.” came the reply, and Lin couldn’t help burst out into even more laughter than before.

“You’re telling me you cut up one of Grandfather’s robes? May the Gods save you, you’re going to be slaughtered down there.”  
The change in scenery was so disorientating it made Lin’s head throb. He knew, logically, he must have made it down the stairs, and been introduced to the guests as was custom, but for him it passed in less than a second as if he was teleported. But no teleporting had ever been allowed in this house.

He was sat in between his siblings, also customary being the middle child, along with his parents on a round table near the top of the room, near the hosts of the party. At least. A part of him told him they were his siblings and his parents. They were all wreathed in flames, obscuring their faces from him and scratching out their words.

“I’ve been practicing a new spell” he heard projected into his mind, and careful practice stopped him from turning his head in the direction of the speaker. If he was messaging straight into his brain, he must not have wanted to be overheard. A part of him would have thought his voice would be clearer, less buried beneath the crackling of flames, but he was evidently wrong.

“And what is that?” Lin responded, still thinking in his head rather than speaking out loud. Just because he couldn’t cast his magic back didn’t mean that he would be inaudible now the channel had been opened.

“I can make a dragon appear in the centre of the room. Freak everyone the fuck out, and liven up this party a bit.” came the response, and Lin actually struggled to keep a straight face at that one. 

“We’re gonna get kicked out. Father is going to literally kill you. You won’t make it out of this party alive.” Lin responded, trying to seem normal by taking more bites out of the food that had been served to them and drinking his wine.

Lin didn’t remember if it had happened that fast before. Wait. Not before. This was real life, this was real time. There hadn’t been a before. But in seconds a large golden dragon appeared in the room, and chaos erupted.

Someone grabbed his arm, pulling him away from the table and out of the room. It was strange, he was sure they were supposed to stay around to witness the mess that ensued, but his sibling’s plan was made apparent within a few seconds. The two of them ran towards the stairs, giggling the whole time as they tried to get up to the second story, to the mezzanine that surrounded the ballroom below.

The disarray down in the ballroom was beautiful in it’s own way. People were screaming, clambering over each other to try and escape the dragon, despite it not doing much but roaring and thrashing around in place. The hosts of the party looked more tired than scared, and Lin wasn’t surprised. They were far too smart to fall for a trick like this. At least one of them seemed to be enjoying it, barely hiding a smirk behind his hand as the others tried to calm everyone down.

The dragon disappeared as quickly as it had arrived, and Lin felt his sibling fall down next to him, coughing up blood onto the marble of the floor that sizzled and burned away unnaturally. His entire body wracked with each breath, and Lin was sat beside him in an instant.

“You idiot. You know that spell’s too powerful to cast without dancing beforehand.” he chastised, while still holding up his hand to rub the other man’s back gently. It was all he could do to help. It was all he could ever do to help.

Lin saw the ghost of his sibling’s face in his memory as he turned to look at him, knowing there was blood pouring out of his nose and staining the corners of his teeth.

“I know. But how am I gonna get better if I don’t push myself?”

Lin woke up with tears streaming down his face. He wasn’t used to dreams, he shouldn’t get dreams, this wasn’t right. After a few moments of gasping in the dark, his lungs trying to get more air in that he thought was physically possible, he looked over to Caelan and was relieved to see he was still fast asleep. At least he hadn’t disturbed him as well. 

He rolled out of bed with a lot less care than he had done the first night. If that nightmare hadn’t woken Caelan up, he doubted anything would at this point. Padding out of the room he turned left, heading towards the mezzanine above the hall the same way he had done that night so many years ago. The house was quieter now, of course, no general partying or screaming about a dragon running through the halls. The silence generally told him that the residents of the house hadn’t returned, either. He was glad, in a way. They were far down on the list of people he wanted seeing him like this.

The ballroom was almost spooky in the dark, all large golden pillars and murals that almost moved when he wasn’t looking. The door didn’t creak open, the house was far too well maintained for that, but his mind also invented the noise. This was a room built for parties, built for occasions, built for happiness but right now? Right now it was making some of the worst sadness Lin had felt in months rise up in his chest and threaten to burst out. Tears were flowing freely down his cheeks now, getting faster even though he managed to avoid out and out sobbing.

He cursed his memory as he made his way over to the spot it had happened, leaning on the banister like he had done almost seventy years ago. If he closed his eyes he could almost hear the screams, smell the meat that had been roasted and served, feel the atmosphere of the part of his skin.

Feel his sibling’s arm in his.

Lin hung his head low, resting it on the banister and taking slow, deep breaths. This was a mistake. Coming here was a mistake. There were too many happy memories made here, and right now they were haunting him. Showing him the joy he didn’t think he’d ever feel again.

The spell he had been hit with must have been a powerful one, if it had lingering effects like this. He wondered if he would have been hit as hard if he hadn’t fought back. Probably not. Something this intense must have been a last ditch attempt to save their life. Hopefully it would wear off soon, he didn’t know how much longer he could cope. Living with his guilt on it’s own was bad enough, let alone factoring in the utter horror of reliving his memories over and over again.

It must have been morning when Caelan walked in. The time had passed quickly, Lin trying to relive the memory in a happy way, trying to actually place his sibling’s face there instead of the burning inferno that occured in the nightmares. He couldn’t forget his face. He couldn’t let that happen.

“You scared the hell out of me, wandering off in the night like that” Caelan spoke up, only the smallest bit of humour in his voice. He sounded like he had been legitimately worried which was sweet, at least.

Until he walked over and occupied the space Lin’s sibling once stood. He knew it shouldn’t but it brushed Lin up the wrong way. That wasn’t Caelan’s place to stand.

“I got restless.” he responded, trying to keep his voice neutral and hide how shaken he still was from the night’s occurrences. “Figured there was nothing that could harm me in a house as fortified as this, hmm?” 

Caelan sighed, looking out over the ballroom below. It looked different in the daytime, light pouring in through all of the stained glass windows and reminding Lin of some of the nearby temples. He supposed it was a temple, in a way.

“You know,” Caelan continued, voice still a little croaky from misuse and at any other time Lin just knew he would find it sexy. “I was going to say ‘How should I know it’s well fortified’ but, well. Look at this place. You don’t have this amount of stuff in your house and not secure it. I was tempted to steal something but I think I’d be struck by lightning from above.”

Lin couldn’t help but chuckle, hating the way the man’s mere presence seemed to be calming him down.

“I would suggest not stealing from our hosts.” he replied, stepping a little closer so their arms pressed together down their entire lengths. “If we’re lucky they won’t know we’ve been here at all. Otherwise we’d be invited back when they’re here and that always involves a huge fucking party.”

“I dunno, I wouldn’t mind a huge party.” Caelan grinned, turning around to press a chaste kiss to Lin’s cheek. “Getting to walk in with you hanging off my arm? People will talk about it for years.”

Lin laughed louder at that, turning his head to catch Caelan’s lips with his own for a second before tugging his arm to leave the room. That was enough moping for today.

“Come on, Casanova. We’ve still got a long way to go yet, nice as it’s been spending time with you in practically a mansion.” he grinned, heading out of the door and back to the room to get dressed.

“Practically?” Caelan laughed, still following him out easily. “This is the biggest house I’ve ever been in. I dread to see where you live if this is only practically a mansion.”

Leaving Winterdrift was never as impressive as arriving. Lin supposed that made sense, but there was something about leaving the great marble buildings and cobbled streets for the great green wastelands of the Britown Plains and the dirt roads that criss-crossed them like embroidered fabric.

At least the horses were well rested. Kevah’s mane and tail had even been braided and almost matched his own hair, but Lin couldn’t help but wonder what happened to the poor woman if she had tried to braid Shiloh’s. At least she’d been an elf, and she still left with a smile, so the horse couldn’t have been that bad.

“If we pick up the pace, we may be able to get to Eastborne by nightfall.” Caelan said, pushing Kevah a little faster. Lin considered for a moment. It seemed mean to push them both that hard, but if he thought on it they both had just had a rest and they’d be spoilt rotten on the train, anyway. He matched the pace easily, half not wanting to disagree with Caelan and half really not wanting to have to camp on the plains. There weren’t really any thick patches of trees between here and Eastborne, and pitching a tent out in the open when the rumours were certainly already abounding as to where he was just seemed like inviting trouble.

“Even if we do get there, we’ll probably miss the last train.” Lin pondered aloud, and he almost thought that Caelan may have missed it but the half-elf turned his head to look at him so he continued. “I can find us an inn, if you wanted, unless…” he thought for a moment. Caelan had definitely said his parents lived in Eastborne. “Unless you wanted to stay at your parents?”

The displeasure crossing Caelan’s face was hard to miss. Lin paused for a second, spiralling into the anxious feeling that he’d gotten it wrong.

“No offence, but I don’t think I’m ready to introduce you to my parents just yet.” Caelan responded, obviously trying to be as polite as possible despite Lin’s entire world falling down around him.

“Wait… no… I…” Lin stammered, feeling his ears drop down low as a blush burnt hot over the entirity of his face. “I didn’t mean that. I meant I’d get an inn, and you could stay with your parents. I don’t… I’m not gonna meet your parents. I get an inn, tell you where, we meet up in the morning. No meeting parents, no… embarrassment.”

Caelan looked back at him, and Lin didn’t know whether he was glad or really fucking hated the amusement on his face as he did.

“Okay, I just wanted to make sure. Staying with them would be… nice. I’m sure they’d even forgive me for being gone six months and only coming back for one night before shooting off again” he smiled, and Lin swore he could see sadness in his eyes.

It was a strange thought. Even when they had been alive Lin never really missed his parents. Even less so now they were dead. He’d been away for three years, once, and never did he even think of returning home just to see them. Of course he knew supportive parents existed, he’d read about them, but to see it first hand was something new, something incredibly different.

“You know.” Lin pondered, trying to make it seem like it was a completely different thought to the conversation they were having. “There is a book shop I wanted to check in on in Eastborne. They definitely won’t be open when we get back, and probably won’t be open until at least noon tomorrow. No… wait. It’s a holy day for Ohm followers tomorrow. They won’t be open. Tell you what, did you mind staying an extra day in Eastborne? Paid, of course.”

Caelan just looked at him, and Lin knew he had been discovered. But the half-elf just looked down at Kevah, smiling a little to himself before responding in a voice dripping with fake annoyance.

“Well, I suppose it can’t be helped. If you really, really needed to visit that bookshop. I can wait for another day, obviously this is important to you.”

Lin couldn’t help but smile at that. It was a strange feeling, the rising warmth in his chest that he hadn’t felt in a very, very long time. He knew, deep down, that ignoring that feeling was bad but that didn’t mean he’d stop ignoring it.

Facing reality right now would just be too scary a concept.


	10. A Ride on a Train

Caelan always hated leaving his parents. Especially after staying such a short time. He promised them he’d be back soon as he hugged them both tight, trying to ignore that his father was squeezing him so tightly it almost hurt. He even said goodbye to the cats, even though they both eyed him suspiciously and ran away when he tried to get close.

His parents had given him a spare change of clothes, ones they had be en keeping there for a while or had picked up for him because ‘oh it just looked like you’d like them’. Usually he would complain, or tell them they didn’t have to, but he was actually thankful for something more suited to the warmer weather. After spending winter down south, spring up north was almost sweltering, and he didn’t want to admit how much he had been suffering already.

Lin was stood by the fountain in the middle of the square when he left the house, and Caelan held his head up high as he walked towards him. At least his parents would be somewhat respectful of their privacy. Caelan had explained that it was purely a working relationship, for a client who wanted to keep his face hidden, and they seemed to understand. It was lot safer work than Caelan, and even his father, had done in the past.

The closer he got, the more it seemed like Lin was talking to himself as he stared at the fountain. He didn’t want to intrude, not at all, and the fountain was known for being somewhat of a wishing well. He slowed down his stride, he was a little early after all. He could always stay back here and give the other man some space, watch for a moment.

The elf pulled a coin from his pocket, too far away for Caelan to see the denomination. He was in another full suit, and Caelan wondered how he wasn’t getting uncomfortable already before settling on it being and elf thing. They always seemed to run warmer than others. One hand rested on his chest as he spoke, and if he hadn’t seen it before Caelan wouldn’t have had a chance of knowing the black necklace lay underneath. If he looked hard he swore he could see tears welling in the man’s eyes, a fact that was only confirm when, after flipping the coin into the fountain, he made a clear effort to wipe them away.

Caelan waited as he turned around, seeming not to notice him at all, and took a seat on the lip of the fountain to wait. He could leave it a couple minutes longer, make it less likely that he would think he had been watched in what was obviously a very private moment.

It appeared he’d been successful when he walked over, adjusting his dulcimer on his back and trying to ignore the way Lin’s face lit up when he saw him walk closer. Caelan wondered if the other man knew.

“You look nice.” Lin smiled, taking a step closer and Caelan hesitated for a second. He knew a lot of people around here, he’d hate for one of them to see them and the rumour mill to start churning. Luckily, Lin seemed to notice, and instead of pulling him closer walked straight past him towards the train station. “The horses have already been loaded. The train leaves in forty-five minutes, but boarding has already started if we wanted to go straight there.”

“Thanks, my parents got some clothes for me” he responded with a smile, keeping pace with Lin easily. “And we can board now. I haven’t been on the train for a while, actually.”

Lin looked over to the side at him, and Caelan could see now his eyes were slightly puffy. Whether from tiredness or crying, he wasn’t sure.

“Well, I got us a queen sized cabin in first class.” he continued, obviously oblivious to the fact Caelan had picked up on it. “They’re amazing. I’m usually in there on my own, though, so it will be fun to share it with someone else.”

Caelan nodded, trying to ignore the obvious upset in his eyes. Pointing it out wouldn’t be any good for anyone.

“Did you find your book yesterday, by the way?” he asked as they walked up to the station, easily getting in line to board.”

“Well, this morning. I went as soon as they opened. But yes, look.” He reached into his bag, pulling out an old tattered book that was written in a language Caelan had almost no hope of translating.

“I have… no idea what that says” he chuckled, and Lin looked surprised for a second before putting it back safely in his bag.

“Oh, well. It’s a book on Sorcerors. It’s in Abyssal. I guess that’s why you can’t read it. But very interesting.” he responded, smiling back at Caelan as he did.  
\---

Caelan didn’t know how to feel about just how damn… intelligent this guy was. People rarely just casually said they were fluent in Abyssal like it was the easiest thing in the world.

“Oh. A book for work? Do you ever get to read for pleasure?” he asked, pausing near the front of the queue for Lin to retrieve the tickets.

Lin got them out quickly, showing them to the guard with a smile before standing aside to let Caelan on first. He’d never been in first class before, but figured he would be able to get the hang of it rather quickly.

“It’s actually for personal research.” Lin explained, following behind Caelan carefully and definitely at a closer distance than just colleagues or friends would stand. “And I do read for pleasure, sometimes. Although I find reading non-fiction books just as pleasurable as fiction ones.”

Anyone else, Caelan would have called boring. He nearly called Lin boring, albeit more jokily, apart from they’d just reached the door to the room that they would be staying in for the night. 

The room was… big. Much bigger than any of the rooms he’d stayed in on the train before, and if he was being honest bigger than a lot of the rooms he’d stayed in in inns around the country. The floor was covered in a plush red carpet, with the same deep red reaching up onto the walls only to be broken apart by gold. The bed was huge, too, a four-poster affair that looked plenty large enough to sleep at least four people in, let alone two.

It felt rather mean to insult the person who had bought him a room like this.

“I hope it’s okay” Lin asked, closing the door behind them as he stepped inside. “It was too short notice to get most of the better rooms on the train.”

Caelan decided that that didn’t, really, require a response.

Lin didn’t wake him up until the next afternoon, which Caelan supposed as nice of him. Even then it was by turning on the shower, and even though the room was soundproofed to the outside of the train, it didn’t appear to be soundproofed fully on the inside.

He rolled to the side, padding over to a magical tablet on the wall and ordering lunch. He didn’t know if Lin had eaten, but it didn’t look like there were any empty plates around so he ordered him some, too. Of course, Lin could have easily sent them back, but Caelan figured it was polite to get some for him and save the leftovers rather than leave him hungry.

The food got there before Lin had finished, but Caelan wasn’t at all surprised. Lin took such a long time in the shower, with all that hair to take care of, added to the fact he had definitely been complaining the last few days he hadn’t had a proper shower. He guessed there wasn’t one in the inn in Eastborne, and the one he’d taken in Winterdrift obviously hadn’t tided him over as well as it had Caelan.

He laid the food out on one of the levitating tables, before sitting back up in bed and bringing it back over with him. He could have been in this room for months and not gotten used to the luxury in it, let alone getting used to it in only three days. 

Despite how hard he really did try not to pick at the food in front of him, he couldn’t help it. Lin was just taking too long, and he found if he just ate one or two of the smaller mouthfuls it really wasn’t that obvious. He didn’t want to accidentally offend the man, not at all, but he was getting hungrier by the minute and the smell of the food in front of him wasn’t helping.

Lin finally left the shower what must have been half an hour later, and instantly looked surprised to see Caelan awake. He had a towel slung low around his hips, and his hair was already dry and hanging loose and kind of frizzy around his head. It was certainly a look, and not one that Caelan could say he disliked.

“Oh, sorry. Didn’t mean to wake you up.” he murmured, before coming to sit down on the side of the bed. It was almost too big for Caelan to lean over and stroke some of the hair around his face.

“You managed to dry your hair?” he asked with a giggle, pushing the table over so Lin could grab some food, too.

“I did!” Lin giggled, slightly more excited than Caelan would have ever thought someone could get about dry hair, if he hadn’t watched the man walk around with his hair still damp in his braid for the last few days they’d been together. “They had like this… this little magic thing and you held it up to your hair and it dried it. Slowly, but it dried it. I’ve never seen one before, I need to get one for myself. Only problem is it makes my hair a little… poofy.” he chuckled, blowing some of the strands out of his face.

Caelan couldn’t help but chuckle a little, popping a smaller bun into his mouth and swallowing it before replying.

“It looks cute though. And if you did hate it, you could always braid it up and it will get rid of it. Might even make the braids look nicer, you know.”

Lin smiled at that, a wide smile that made his ears flutter slightly. It was the first time that Caelan had seen it happen from talking alone, and he tried to ignore that he was the reason why those ears were fluttering.

They sat there for a while longer, finishing their food and just lazing around in bed. It wasn’t like there was much they could do, trapped on a train like this anyway. Sure there was entertainment, but Caelan had always found it more than a little tacky and he was relieved that Lin felt the same.

It felt like a bad time to bring it up. Like, a really bad time. On the one hand, Lin couldn’t run away from the question. On the other, he couldn’t escape either.

“You know, I talk a lot about my parents, and you never tell me about yours.” he said thoughtfully, framing it as innocently as he could. Always better than saying ‘hey, I heard your entire family was murdered, what gives?’

Lin, predictably, took it well. Like he had taken every other question that had been asked of him. The two of them were still laid back in bed, Lin’s head lying on Caelan’s chest, and it made it easy for him to see any reaction if there had been one. No ticking down of the ears, no visible response at all, and it was enough to make Caelan wonder whether the old gnome had been mistaken.

“Oh, well. What did you want to know? They’re not as interesting as yours.” he replied easily. There was no way someone would speak about their parents like that if they’re been murdered, right? At the very least, it was something interesting about them.

“Okay. So you said they’re wizards. What type?” he prompted a little, wanting to make it look like he was asking purely from actual interest and with no ulterior motive. He knew very little about wizards, but he did know there were different types, at least.

“My father is a divination wizard.” Okay, so he was speaking in the present tense. That was a clue. Either that or he was incredibly in denial. Caelan wasn’t sure what was worse.

He must have seen the look on his face because he continued with his explanation. Whereas Caelan had actually been confused over something else, he would be the first to admit that he didn’t have a single clue what a divination wizard was, either.

“They can… sort of predict the future” Lin continued, tapping his fingers idly on Caelan’s chest as he thought. Any further around his side and he would have been squirming, but for now he supposed it was rather pleasant. “Other things, too. His eyesight is better, and he can see into a few different planes. He knows every single language as well, as long as it’s written down. It’s kind of insane.”

Caelan couldn’t help but let out a breath. That really was something else, he supposed. He knew wizards could be powerful, but this was just crazy.

“He’s where I get my height, too. Sort of. He’s still a little shorter than me.” Lin continued, and Caelan wondered if he’d ever stop now he got going. “My eyes, too. Not the hair though. My hair is kind of a mixture between his and my Mum’s, weirdly.”

Caelan nodded, starting to stroke along Lin’s hair as he spoke about it and watching his ears flutter faster at the attention.

“Now, she’s a transmutation wizard. Turning wood into gold, and all that. She mostly uses it to change herself, though. Don’t get me wrong, she’s beautiful, but she does a lot of modelling work and just… turns into what they want her to be.” He shrugged a little, as if what he was saying was the most boring thing in the world. Caelan supposed when he was younger he thought his parents were the most boring thing in the world, too. And if you took into account the lifespan of an elf, Lin was much, much younger than he was.

“But she has really curly ginger hair, like ringlets. Bright blue eyes like yours, too. She is half Star Elvish, sure, but she definitely took after the Sun Elvish side more. Not that she ever complains, her favourite place is lying out in the sun.” Lin continued, and Caelan didn’t really want to stop him. He seemed, kind of happy.

“Tell me about yours.” he suddenly asked, and Caelan looked down to wide eyes almost begging him to speak. “I mean, I know your Mum is a druid, and an elf. And you’re Dad’s human. But what do they do? What do they like?”

Caelan thought for a moment. It seemed weird to be doing this, with someone who was technically his employer. But it wasn’t like it could hurt, right?

“Well, like you said, my mum’s an elf. A moon elf. From the Belleter Forest. She moved to Eastborne when she met my Dad and got married. She’s still… kinda adjusting to life in the city. But sometimes she gets restless and just flies around as an owl for a while. Sometimes she takes my Dad too. It was weird as a kid to come home from school to both your parents just chilling as birds in the kitchen.” Caelan giggled, leaning his head back and closing his eyes in order to think through what he was going to say a little clearer. “She’s, like… insanely powerful, too. But you wouldn’t think it. She barely uses magic, and when she does it’s for little things like being an owl or getting from place to place. A bit like your Mum I suppose.”

He felt Lin nod, but didn’t see it from his relaxed position. He also felt the undeniable tapping of his ears against his skin. It was nice, in a way. Calming.

“My Dad was a fighter. Proper old fashioned sword and shield type. Insanely strong, but by the Gods is he the nicest guy I ever met. People always assume because he’s big he’s gonna be an asshole but… nah. Honestly he’s the best Dad anyone could ever ask for. He’s retired now, but he spends all of his time baking. He picked it up when Mum was pregnant with me, apparently, and now it’s just a thing he does. He sells them, sometimes, when he can be bothered to take them to the market, and Mum sells things that she’s made but they’re… comfortable. Just living out their retirement, I guess.”

Caelan didn’t want to think on how he was beginning to realise he could get used to this, this comfortable conversation where they learnt more and more about each other as the days went on. It was a terrifying thought.


	11. Home Sweet Home

The heat of Hyrandell hit as soon as Lin stepped off the train. It always seemed to be disproportionately warm here, a result of the mountains forcing all of the heat down into the valley and across to the coast. He’d been sure to bring some of his cooler suits for when he got here, and got into one early in the morning. The fabric was weaved with magic, making sure it would keep him hot in the winter and cooler in the summer. They were expensive, of course, which was why didn’t wear them all of the time, along with the fact he really didn’t like the way the suits hung on his frame. His hair was scraped back into a traditional Elvish braid, partly to keep up appearances but mostly to keep the hair out of his face in the heat. He had no idea whether the apparent dual purpose was because of the elvish proclivity for heat or whether it was completely coincidental.

Caelan had swapped to a thinner shirts, too, his leather jacket he had been wearing the entire time having been packed securely into his bag. Lin had offered to braid his hair back, too, but he had denied, saying that his hair wasn’t quite long enough to braid back properly and was still short enough to keep out of his face.

The two of them made their way along the train, Lin guiding Caelan to where the horses were being housed in a separate carriage. He could almost sense everyone looking at them, hear the whispers as well. Maybe he had been out of the city for too long, but it had only been a month at most. It didn’t matter, really. He knew just how quickly word spread in this city. Everyone would know he was back in town, and that never boded well.

Shiloh only seemed slightly annoyed at being left with other people for the last three days. She instantly walked up to Lin, ears pinned back and tail swishing in annoyance. Lin couldn’t help but sigh out loud, Shiloh could get annoying when she didn’t like you.

“Come on, Drama Queen” he joked, leading her away from the train and trying to find some privacy so he could mount her properly.

“Uh-oh, you upset the racist horse” Caelan chuckled, following along with Kevah who, if anything, seemed happy about the time he had had being spoilt. “What’s up with your sister, eh?” Lin heard him mutter to his own horse, and couldn’t help but roll his eyes.

Lin used to understand the saying “There’s no place like home.” He used to be excited about coming home, back before, what seemed like a lifetime ago. When there was people at home to be excited about. But for now it just looked empty, the lights all turned out behind closed curtains.

People had been in the house, of course. Managing the upkeep, looking after the horses, making sure no one broke in and stole everything. Maybe that made it a little better at least. None of the plants in the garden seemed to have died, which was certainly a lot better than when Lin was looking after them. Maybe he should get around to having a full time gardener before they got too destroyed and the surroundings got reclaimed by the desert.

They were halfway through the front garden before he realised how quiet Caelan was. He slowed his walking, watching how Caelan slowed too, apparently without even noticing.

“Home sweet home, huh?” he smiled, and Caelan turned to look at him with a blank expression. It was probably even worse than if he’d had a disgusted look on his face. Lin paused, he certainly didn’t want this to be uncomfortable for him.

“I thought you said that your house was smaller than your friends?” Caelan responded, and Lin finally figured out what was happening. He was most definitely overwhelmed by the size of it. It was strange, Lin hadn’t really seen it before. Most of the people who visited didn’t really like the house, and the way it had been built.

The Chasso mansion was right on the edge of the city, close to the Hartiz Ridge and backing up onto the small forest that was found there. Lin could remember as a child when it took him over half an hour to walk to the edge of the city, but in the last century it had expanded out until his house was only a couple of minutes away. His father had always bragged that it was thanks to the Chasso’s that the city had expanded so fast, and while Lin knew there were a few contributing factors he couldn’t argue that they were definitely a factor in it.

The house had grown almost as much as the city had. His grandfather had built the main section, or so he had been told, but his mother had been both rich and bored and so the house had expanded at an exponential rate. Wings added to accommodate his and his siblings’ hobbies, more and more guest rooms as her status grew, and even a large temple right in the back of the land. Lin could barely remember a time that construction wasn’t going on in and around their land. She’d… tried… to match the house designs, and you could see that, but you could also almost track her current fashion obsessions depending on the sections of the house. Lin’s specific wing, holding his room along with a lab and a large library separate from his father’s was very heavily inspired by some of the Aclen tribes, all dark woods and red accents. Lin couldn’t really complain, he loved the style, but it was an obvious contrast to the white walls and woven textiles of his brother’s rooms. It was an amazing time, as a kid. Bribing the architects and the builders to add secret tunnels and rooms that only he and his sibling knew about. Looking back, it seemed a little pretentious. Children bribing builders with what was probably an entire years wages, but he tried not to think about that too hard.

“It is smaller than my friend’s” he chuckled, trying to act calm despite the panic that was slowly rising in his chest. What if Caelan wanted to leave because he thought he was too upperclass? What if it changed his view of him? “It just looks bigger because it’s longer. It doesn’t go as far back as his does.”

Caelan nodded, but Lin could still see his eyes darting around and trying to take everything in. Lin kept an eye on him as he walked up to the house, fishing his key out of his pocket and opening the front door. He’d had to forgo the added security of the magical locks, seeing as he couldn’t actually unlock them.

A part of him was worried. The entrance of the house had originally been designed to be intimidating, and his father had only made things worse. Lin had taken a lot of the decorations down, mainly the paintings, but some of the larger statues and golden fixtures still remained. He’d at least broken up the marble floor with a few strategically placed rugs, and a new carpet ran up both sets of stairs leading to the second floor. Lin at least thought that it made the place look a little less pretentious. Of course, that wasn’t something he could really learn himself, it all depended on what Caelan thought about it.

“Most of the, um, really showy stuff is down here. Ballroom, dining room, and the kitchen of course. Some of the old guest bedrooms as well, but they’re not really used. Next floor is the more live in things, my office, the living rooms, drawing rooms and things like that.. All of the main bedrooms are on the second floor, right at the top.” Lin knew he was babbling, but hoped that Caelan wouldn’t be too concerned about it. This was the first time he’d had someone actually personal in the house, someone who he wanted to tone down how pompous the house was. Usually it was business partners, and he was far better at talking the house up than he was at talking it down.

“So, you live here all on your own?” Caelan finally asked, readjusting his bag on his shoulder, and Lin tried hard not to make his pause before answering too obvious.

“I do now, yeah. It was the family home until everyone else moved on.” Lin replied. It technically wasn’t lying. Technically. He tried to ignore the way that Caelan nodded slightly. Surely if he had known what happened he would have brought it up by now.

“That’s fair. It must be odd, a big house all like this. Do you have any servants that keep the place going, or is it just you?” Caelan asked, and Lin finally took the time to guide him up the stairs towards his bedroom. There were spare rooms, of course, but a part of him hoped that Caelan would still want to stay with him. It seemed a little manipulative, maybe, putting the onus on Caelan to say he didn’t want to stay with him, but right now he didn’t feel strong enough to give him the option straight off.

“Uh, there used to be. I don’t really bother anymore. I might get a gardener, I’ve never really had a green thumb. But the vast majority of things I can do myself just fine, the bonus of never sleeping I guess. If I need something I’ll get someone in one off, doesn’t seem fair to keep them on the books and never really use them.” he responded, pushing the door to his room open and letting Caelan inside.

His room was definitely less grandiose than most of the rest of the house. He’d kept with his mother’s original design scheme, almost monochromatic with accents of a dark red scattered around. He couldn’t lie, he enjoyed how it looked and the room was definitely big enough to carry the darker shades of grey that covered most of the walls. A four poster bed dominated most of the room, looming above him and also hitting the ceiling with black velvet drapes hanging from the crossbars. He would be the first to admit it looked kind of like a stereotypical villain’s lair, but it was still a good look.

If Lin was being honest he was slowly cheating on his resolution of bringing his work into his bedroom. Most of the actual work was either completed in his lab or his office, sure, but there was a definite creep of some research books into his personal shelves in here. He always told himself that it was just in case he got a dash of inspiration in the middle of the night, but if he was being honest then it was most probably just laziness and unwillingness to take things back into the office when he was finished with them.

“This is a nice room” Caelan finally said, and Lin turned to see him looking around the room. He didn’t seem too surprised, or too put out by the size of it. “How many guys do you bring back here?”

Lin couldn’t help but blush, ears ticking down a little in embarrassment as he moved to put his bag down on a dresser to prepare to unpack from the trip.

“Um… not many, believe it or not. Usually don’t come back here, it’s a bit… I don’t know. It always seems that I’m showing off bringing people back here. I prefer to go to hotel rooms, or to theirs or… you know. Other places.” He didn’t want to continue with his thought, letting him know the number of times he’d gone into inns, found a guy and been dragged into the bathroom for a quicky.

“So I should feel privileged, hm?” Caelan grinned, walking up behind Lin and grabbing his hips. Lin’s ears kept twitching, part in embarrassment and part in interest, as he stood stock still. Caelan rested his chin on his shoulder, and Lin couldn’t help but tilt his head slightly to rest it on top of his.

“Yeah, congratulations. The first guy to successfully talk himself into my bedroom. Definitely something to write home about.” Lin replied, trying to fight down the urge to purr that was building up in his stomach. He didn’t want to freak Caelan out too much, didn’t want him to run He didn’t even have any idea whether they were dating or not, whether it was something that Caelan was even interested in. It wasn’t like it was something he had ever done before.

“Well, I feel very honoured.” Caelan replied, and Lin couldn’t help but pause as he felt him kiss up his neck towards his jaw.

“I… um… I could do with someone around, you know? General body guard work. It’s not… It’s not really dangerous here, but it would help me out. If you wanted to stay around.” Lin felt Caelan tighten behind him, and panicked that he had said something wrong. Backpedalling wasn’t usually a good tactic, but right now it felt necessary.

“It won’t be all the time. And you don’t have to stay with me. I can pay well, and there’s one or two other jobs that I could really use someone around for. Some research, too, if you were willing. That makes me sound like a serial killer but… it’s hard to find bards, you know? Quicker journey home, as well, if you wanted…”

Lin heard himself trail off at the end. Caelan was still tense behind him, and a part of him wanted him to grab his hands, stroke his thumbs across the back of his hands to calm himself down if not Caelan. It was something he’d offered before, and never got an answer to.

The pause before Caelan spoke was possibly one of the longest in his life. When he did speak it was slow, as if he was thinking of his words carefully as he spoke. “I’ll think about it. I don’t know just yet, I don’t want to give you an answer and change my mind later. But give me a couple of days, and I’ll let you know.”

Lin made sure to keep a straight face, as well as he could. It was better than he really expected, he supposed. Patience was one of his strong points, he could wait for Caelan’s decision.


	12. The Incident

Caelan woke up to a loud bang. For a second he thought he had just been dreaming, his nightmares bleeding through slightly into real life. He rolled over on instinct, hand patting across the bed sheets to look for someone to pull close.

Lin. To look for Lin to pull close.

The fact he wasn’t there was… worrying, to say the least. This was thricenow Lin had gone wandering in the night, and whereas the latest time he had been fine, the first time he definitely wasn’t. He laid on his back, stretching his hands above his head as he tried to figure out whether he needed to get up or not. They were in Lin’s house, surely there wasn't really that much of a risk? He probably went up to go to the bathroom, or cook, or go do some more work in his office, or whatever rich people did.

With a sigh he rolled out of bed to get up, feet sinking into the thick carpet that surrounded the bed. It was both a blessing and a curse, muffling all of the noise he made while doing the same thing for any possible intruders. This had better be worth it, the prick better not just be wandering the gardens.

His ears pricked up when he stepped out into the hall, listening for any sign of Lin moving around the house. That was the difficulty with such a large place, he supposed. It was hard to hear things happening in other areas of the house, especially with Lin’s room being right at the end of the east wing of the house. Pausing in the hallway he strained his hearing, desperately trying to the clanging of pots, the turning of pages, something. But for the longest time there was nothing, until he took a step forward, and the floorboard creaked.

There was a moan of pain in return, and for a moment he thought it might have been someone underneath the floor, but it came from the other end of the hallway. It was cut off soon after with a thud, and a grunt, and adrenaline immediately flooded his system. Something was wrong.

He kicked into action straight away, bending his knees so he could move faster if he needed to. If he was being sensible he would go back and grab a weapon, but he found himself in a panic mode quicker than he had done before. At least he could use his magic.

His ears stayed on high alert as he started to hum quietly. It was times like this that he sometimes wished that his chosen form of magic didn’t need to be so loud. No one seemed to pick it up though, which was a blessing. Obviously whoever it was who had broken in was an amateur at best. If it had been him he would definitely have had some magical alarms set up in case anyone came investigating. Although, if he was being fair if he had been doing it then he definitely would have killed anyone else in the house before he got to his mark.  
After he had built up enough magic he let the magic spell release around him, and he knew that he would be slowly fading out of sight. It wasn’t the most powerful spell, but it would do what he needed it too for as long as he needed. As long as he stayed quiet, he would be completely indetectable. 

The walk down the corridor seemed a lot longer than it had done with less at stake. He’d already noticed the creaking of the old wood planks as he had walked up here earlier, and even remembered thinking at the time it would be awful if someone wanted to sneak around. Maybe he should have brought it up at the time. Hindsight was alway twenty-twenty like they said.

The closer he got to the room at the other end of the corridor, the louder the voices drifting out of it became. He had no idea whether there was a reason behind them bringing Lin to this room, but it was definitely the furthest away from where they had left Caelan sleeping. That made sense, he supposed. Less likely to wake him up if Lin ever did start screaming.

“All you need to do is give us the money and we will go away. We’ll even leave your little boyfriend alive.” The voice was in common, muffled slightly as if a mask was covering their face. If Caelan had to say, he would have admitted that he sounded a little scared.

There was no response, and a part of Caelan was proud that Lin didn’t crack easily. The amount of people he’d been around who broke down over only the smallest amount of torture.

Another loud thump, and a barely contained grunt of pain reminded him of his time constraints, and he hurried up as much as he could without making too much noise.

Whoever these guys were, they were absolute amateurs. They had left the door wide open, easy for Caelan to come up to the doorframe and take a look inside. 

Lin was tied to a chair in the middle of what appeared to be another guest room. His arms were bound behind his back, legs strapped to the front legs of the chair, and there was even rope wrapping around his stomach. They obviously didn’t know Lin very well, if they thought he was going to be at all able to fight back. 

His face was already beginning to bruise up, and part of his hair was matted with blood where they had obviously struck him with something sharp. No stab wounds, though, and Caelan tried not to think of how grateful he was for that.

He had a defiant look in his eyes while he stared the men down. There were three of them, all human, and that explained why Lin had been able to pick up the sound of the floorboard creaking where they hadn’t. Elven ears had a tendency to be a lot more sensitive. They looked like cookie cutter villains, all dressed in black and gray with their faces covered with the kind of masks you found in a fancy dress store. No wonder they had been so amateurish. Well, they had managed to get into the house. Maybe he shouldn’t say too much against them.  
They were armed with nothing more than wooden clubs, one with nails sticking out of the end. These guys definitely weren’t doing this at all professionally.

“We know you killed them all. We could go to the city guard easily, tell them exactly what you did. Or, we could walk away, keep our mouths shut, and no one has to know.” the man in the back spoke, with slightly less of a shake in his voice than the first man.

“You do know there’s a bounty for information on their deaths, right?” Lin finally spoke, and his voice was different to what Caelan had heard before. Darker, somehow. It was still distinctly Lin, but with a few more layers added in. “It would equate to just over thirty thousand gold for each of you. And you would probably have gotten it, too. You’re a reliable enough source. But you were just too greedy for that, weren’t you?”

Caelan was almost fascinated for a moment, wanting to hear more, get more of the story the gnome in Winterdrift had started telling him. This was even more than “his family is dead”, this was “Lin killed his entire family”.

He was pulled out of it by Lin taking another punch to the face, followed by a trickle of blood out of his nose. As much as he wanted desperately to know what happened, his main priority was making sure that Lin was safe.

Without a second’s thought he started to sing, forcing everyone in the room to look at him. The look of confusion on their face at the song coming from nowhere came too late as he raised his hands, feeling the hair around his head raising slightly as the spell exploded around him.

The shockwave flew out from him, filling the room and hitting everything in his wake. The man closest to him took most of the brunt, ears starting to bleed as each synapse in his brain exploded with activity. He hadn’t even hit the floor before the other two men got smashed in tandem, their symptoms almost identical to the first as they fell. The spell faded as it got to Lin, hair blowing about in the effects of the spell before it finally disappated into the air.

Caelan dropped the invisibility spell as he moved into the room, walking up to the man closest to him. His mouth was opened in a scream of pain, eyes glassy and blood still pouring from his ears to pool on the ground. Caelan crouched down, taking the man’s head in his hands and quickly turning his neck to snap it. He’d had that spell backfire on him before, almost take someone out before they arose and stabbed him in the back before he knew what was happening.

He made his way around the other two men, glad at his habit when the last man groaned at his head being grabbed. After he stood up he moved over to Lin, sitting down on his lap and starting to sing. He rested his hands on the elf’s face, letting healing magic flow from his hands into Lin and watching his wounds slowly heal. The bruises on his face paled and disappeared, and the cuts to his skin knitted back together in front of him.

He didn’t really know how well Lin was doing mentally, which was another big concern. The elf was just staring at him, eyes twitching as they roamed around his face. Being basically kidnapped and tortured was sure to do something to a person, and with all the will in the world his magic wouldn’t fix that.

“How are you feeling?” he asked as he stood up from his lap, moving around to start untying him before realising that the ropes around his wrists and waist was already loose. “Wait, did you do this?”

Lin looked up at him, nodding as he moved to work on his ankles. “My siblings tied me up a lot when I was a kid. I got pretty good at getting out of them after a while. And I’m fine, thank you. Not the first time I’ve been tied up or held to ransom.”

Caelan couldn’t help but stare, taking a step back to let him work. He was tempted to ask why he hadn’t let himself out earlier, but quickly realised even if he did there wasn’t much he could have done against three armed men.

Lin finally stood up, looking down at the men on the floor and taking a deep breath. He bent down, grabbing one of their masks and pulling it off before sighing.

“Just like I thought. These guys used to work for my family. Fuck. I would rather they hadn’t died but they didn’t really leave us a choice, huh?” he smiled sadly up at Caelan, and it was the first indication that this had actually affected him that Lin had given.

“I mean, it was either them or you. They did drag you out of bed and tie you up, and with all the will in the world I don’t think you could have taken many more hits to the face like that.” Caelan replied, walking over to another one of the men and pulling the mask off him as well. “So, what do you want to do with these guys? Return them to their families or?”

Lin thought for a second, standing up and looking over the bodies in front of them. “Well, these two didn’t have families. As for this guy… I hate to say it but sending him home will only raise questions that I would need to answer. His wife is lovely, I have to admit, but I wouldn’t want to give her the pain of knowing he was trying to extort me. It might be better for him to just… disappear.”

Caelan looked up, disagreeing slightly but not about to voice it. Whatever Lin wanted right now, Lin would get.

“I can use them though.” Lin continued, crouching down and inspecting one of the men closer, tilting his head from side to side as he stared at him. “If you didn’t mind helping me take them to my lab. They’ll do one last job for me, and I’ll dispose of them properly.”

Caelan wanted to ask, wanted to know exactly what Lin was going to use them for, but after a moment he decided against it. He didn’t really care what Lin did in his spare time, and it wasn’t really his place to decline.

“Yeah, sure. But after that we’re going to have to have a talk.” he said seriously, watching Lin where he was crouched down.

The elf looked up with a sigh, meeting Caelan’s eyes before letting out a slow breath and looking back down at the floor.

“Yeah, I know.”

At least it hadn’t taken long to drag the bodies across to Lin’s lab. They hadn’t even needed to go downstairs, the lab being on the same floor. Caelan had taken a quick look around, taking in the clean white walls and tiled floor, and made a note to come and have a deeper investigation if he did decide to stay. He helped haul the final body onto a table, taking a step back to take a breath.

In the time they had taken to get over here, Caelan had thought on it. He was, quite honestly, lucky to be alive. It was a miracle that they had left him alone, hadn’t killed him in his sleep. It would certainly have been easier to do than dragging Lin without without waking him up. This was the closest to death Caelan had been for a long time, and Lin was treating it like it was nothing.

“Okay. I’ll get these sorted in the morning.” Lin finally said, his own breathing deep from the exertion of pulling one of the bodies over. “Shall we head back to bed?”

Caelan narrowed his eyes at him, turning around to stare at Lin for a second. 

“No, you’re telling me what the fuck just happened.” he ground out through his teeth, keeping his gaze levelled at the elf in front of him. Lin’s ears dropped down almost to his shoulders, but Caelan didn’t care how uncomfortable he was.

When Lin responded he was quiet, voice muted. “Oh, well… We could go downstairs and make cocoa? We don’t really wanna be…”

“No, you’ll fucking tell me right now.” Caelan interrupted, standing up to his full height and watching Lin’s ears pin back in fear. “I just woke up to you being tied up and beaten. This isn’t part of the contract, you know. I can turn around and walk out of here right this second and I don’t care. Or you can tell me what the fuck is going on with you.”

Lin had shrunk back against the wall as Caelan spoke, looking vaguely reminiscent of a kicked puppy as he did. Caelan found he didn’t care, though.

“What… what did you want to know? Why they tied me up? Because they were looking for money. That tends to be what’s happening when someone comes into my house and attacks me.” Lin responded, a hint of spite at the response. But Caelan wasn’t taking it.

“I want to know what the fuck is up with your family.” he nearly shouted, taking a step towards Lin. “First a random woman in Winterdrift warns me to stay away from you, that you’re cursed and you’re gonna cause my death. You live in this huge fucking house all alone, with no explanation why. And now these guys are saying you killed someone. What in the fuck is going on?”

Lin tried to take a step back, hitting the wall and just staring at Caelan in absolute terror. There was a moment where Caelan thought he would run, thought he would try to get away, but he seemed to be frozen in fear.

A few minutes passed in silence, Caelan waiting for answers as Lin simply stared back at him. Whatever, he didn’t need to do this. He owed the man nothing. He’d just pack up his bags and head home in the morning. After a few more moments, giving Lin more of a chance than he really deserved, before turning around to head back to the room.

“Wait.” Lin’s voice sounded full of tears, full of fear as he called out. Caelan paused for a moment, before turning around to look at him. The elf had actually held his hand out, as if he was willing Caelan to stop with his mind. “Wait, I’ll tell you.”

Caelan was about to respond, about to tell him he didn’t have all night, but finally Lin spoke.

“My family are all dead, yes. But I didn’t kill them.” He sighed, ears the lowest Caelan had ever seen them and eyes full of tears. Lin’s knees went out beneath him, and he fell back to slide down the wall behind him. His head dropped into his hands, elbows on his knees as he closed his eyes.

“It… People broke in. A lot of them. They came into my room, cast some spells on me I couldn’t shake off. Dragged me down into the basement.” His voice was coming out stilted, and Caelan could just see his face screwing up in the pain of the memory.

“I don’t remember much from down there. My whole family was there and there was… there was screaming. And pain. They tattooed me, tattooed all of us with these fucking tattoos. I couldn’t deal with the pain. I passed out. When I came to they were gone. So were my family.” He was actively crying now, and Caelan was torn as to whether or not he should go over there. After a moment he closed the gap between them, dropping to his knees beside him and resting a hand on his shoulder. Lin reacted instantly, curling into him and clinging to his waist. Caelan wrapped his arms around the man’s shoulders, letting him press easily into his chest.

“Their bodies were there, but they weren’t. They were all dead. I cried, for a while, before getting the guards. They, um. They think I survived because of my mutation. Because I can’t do magic.” Lin mumbled, voice obscured by his face being pressed into Caelan’s chest. “They said I was lucky, but I’ve never felt it. Not really. It was just the Chasso curse hitting again.”

Caelan wanted to ask, he really did. Wanted more information on just what the Chasso curse was, but he knew that wouldn’t be the best idea right now.

“Why didn’t you tell me?” he asked gently, rubbing small circles on Lin’s back gently.

“It’s a bit stupid to tell someone that no one would miss you if you didn’t make it home, isn’t it?” Lin chuckled through tears, and Caelan was inclined to agree. “Plus meeting someone and being all “Hey, I’m cursed and it got all my family killed” doesn’t seem to go too well, in my experience.”

“You didn’t get them killed” Caelan whispered, pressing a kiss to the top of Lin’s head carefully. It was possibly a bit too domestic, but right now it seemed like that’s what Lin wanted. “Come on. Let’s go to bed. We can talk about it in the morning.”

“Will you stay?” Lin asked, looking up with wide pleading eyes.

“We’ll talk about it tomorrow.” Caelan repeated. After all, who knew what tomorrow would bring.


End file.
